A ferret needs a food made specifically made for ferrets that are designed to meet their daily nutritional requirements. Feed the best food you can afford and your ferret will be healthier and happier. A good nutritional ferret food will help to prevent disease and illness, and it's much cheaper than to treat it with drugs and surgery later. For variety and training, offer an occasional treat, duck soup, or chew treats made for ferrets.

Use the following guidelines to select a dry or kibbled food for ferrets:The first three listed ingredients should be a high-quality meat protein - chicken, poultry, beef, or lamb (preferably whole - not meal) meat. Protein must be 35 - 40%, Fat must be 18 - 30%, Fiber - 2% (good fiber ingredient - beet pulp) (anything above 3% can cause digestive upsets), Needs to contain 21 amino acids including taurine, an essential amino acid for vision and proper functioning of the heart.Must have a low ash level (7.0% or less), Good carbohydrates ingredients - rice flour or brewers yeast.

Ferrets are true carnivores (strict meat-eaters - whole prey) belonging to the weasel family, or mustelidae and is related to ermines or stoats, minks and weasels. Ferrets lack a cecum and appendix, the section of intestine that helps omnivores process vegetables and they cannot adequately handle diets high in fiber or carbohydrates and requires a diet high in protein and fat, consisting mainly of meat and animal products. They cannot digest vegetable, fruits, or grains. They digest food in about 3 to 4 hours, and must have food and water available at all times. Most high quality ferret foods contain all the essential vitamins and minerals necessary, and does not need any extra supplements.

A baby kit (6 - 11 weeks old) might not be accustomed to eating solid food and may need to have moistened food. One part dry food with three parts warm water, let sit about 3 minutes, until consistency of oatmeal (adjust ratio if needed). What a ferret is fed in the first six months of life, it will only recognize that as food. It is important to feed a variety of food from the beginning. A lot of owners buy a variety of ferret foods and offer as a mix. This will prevent any problems, should a brand become unavailable.

Feeding a ferret an improper or poor diet of highly processed food with excessive vegetable protein can cause many illnesses and premature death. A ferret can suffer from such diseases as bladder stones, poor coat and skin , eosinophilic gastroenteritis (wasting, diarrhea, ulcerations of the skin and ear tips, swollen feet) and poor growth. Foods high in carbohydrates (sugar - ferret treats) causes insulinoma in ferrets. Do not feed a ferret vegetables, grains or fruits, they are unable to digest and could cause stomach blockage that without surgery will cause a painful death. Do not feed ferrets any dog or cat food, they are not nutritionally appropriate and will cause heath problems. A high quality kitten food is acceptable if you are unable to obtain ferret food.

Avoid dyes (look at the color of the food), fillers such as corn, corn meal, corn grits, wheat middling, bran, germ, flour, and other grains or fish as the primary protein. Avoid anything with soy flour or soybean meal. Avoid fruits and vegetables ingredients. Foods with corn products can cause intestinal blockage in ferrets.

Avoid artificial preservatives such as Ethoxyquin (used as a preservative in pet foods to prevent the rancidification of fats), BHT (synthetic analogue of vitamin E), and BHA (an additive that accumulates in the body fat and known to cause cancer in animals) as these ingredients are considered to be harmful to a pet's health and may increase the likelihood of cancer.

There is a direct relationship between foods and disease. Be aware that most ferrets love sweets and are prone to being "junk food" eaters. Do not feed candy, cakes, sugar-coated cereals, soda, junk food, ferrets cannot digest sugar. Sugars puts tremendous strain on the pancreas and results in diabetes, which is difficult to treat and leads to death. No dairy products (milk, cheese, ice cream), dog food or canned cat food. All of these can cause severe, life-threatening diarrhea.

Do not feed your ferret any kind of cat or dog food, they will suffer from improper nutrition and will become ill and could possibly cause death.

.Never feed your ferret these items:

Toxic or dangerous food for pets

• Chocolate
• Onions
• Grapes
• Raisins.
• Yeast dough
• Alcohol
• Tobacco
• Marijuana
• Moldy or spoiled food
• Wild mushrooms
• Large amounts of raw fish
• Potato, rhubarb or tomato leaves
• Large amounts of raw liver
• Large numbers of macadamia nuts
• Fruit pits
• Corn cob

Ferrets don't need to be bathe, unless they get into something that you would have to bathe them. Ferrets are clean animals and will groom themselves. Bathing ferrets only causes them to smell more. It drys their skin, making them itch and they will secrete oils to replaced what was washed off by bathing.

Some Ferrets do like having baths. But then again lots don't. Ferrets body temperature is about 101 F to 104 F (37.8 - 40 C), so what may feel warm to humans may feel cold to a ferret. May sure the water isn't too cool for them. Make sure you keep the bedding clean to cut down any odors and change litter box daily.

Aleutian Disease (also ADV, for Aleutian Disease Virus) is a highly contagious parvovirus affecting mustelids, causing spontaneous abortion and death in minks and ferrets.

Aleutian disease virus is highly contagious. It is transferred through a ferret's bodily fluids, and it can be lie dormant in dried urine or on an owner's clothes and shoes for up to two years. Known cases of ADV positive ferrets should not be taken to places where they may come in contact with other ferrets. They also should not be allowed to run on floors or other areas where uninfected ferrets or their owners may come in contact with residual traces of the virus from the infected animals.

The Aleutian disease virus lays dormant in ferrets until stress or injury allows it to surface. While the parvovirus itself causes little or no harm to the ferret host, the large number of antibodies produced in response to the presence of the virus results in a systemic vasculitis, resulting in eventual renal failure, bone marrow suppression and death. The symptoms are chronic, progressive weight loss, lethargy, hepatomegaly and/or enlarged spleen, anemia, rear leg weakness, seizures and black tarry stool. Once symptoms show themselves, the disease progresses rapidly, usually to death within a few months.

Source: Wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleutian_Disease