A friend has given me an extremely fat ferret which hasn't been worked for several months. I read recently that I should put it on a cereal based diet. Do you agree? How can I get it back into working shape? What weight should an 'average' ferret be?
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Ferrets
EDWARD COOK says: No, I never feed my ferrets dried food. They don’t catch or hunt dried food in the wild so why give them it when they’re domesticated?
My advice would be to put the overweight beast in the biggest living quarters you can muster and let it get as much exercise as possible. If you only have a small hutch then build a play area alongside with lots of pipes and ladders inside for an enjoyable work out.
Ferrets love this sort of fun and freedom, and will make the most of the facilities. Once you see the weight coming off, work him as much as possible.
As for diet, try feeding him something he has to work hard to get a meal from. I feed my ferrets rabbit’s heads on a regular basis and they seem to be in perfect shape.
Your ferret is unlikely to work properly until it is fit, but it won’t do any harm letting it work alongside another until it is slimmer.
An average sized ferret? Ferrets vary so greatly it would be ridiculous for me to even start mentioning weights. As its keeper you have to develop an eye for these things.
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