Kitty and ferret mealtime?

Sorry, wasn't sure where to put this, as it's about another pet also, but it's about food.

I rescued my ferret, Ludwig, about a year ago. He was a year old when I got him, and pretty bad off.. The girl that was keeping him didn't seem to know what she was doing, and while he was at a healthy weight, he was eating really cheap, unhealthy food.

I've since managed to alter his diet (not so easy with ferrets), to a healthier dry food... But, as I'm due to get in a rescue kitty in a week or so, I was wondering if there was a healthy diet plan that would work for the both of them? I've seen tons about the raw food diet, and I'll be speaking to my local butcher today about getting some nice lean scraps, but I want to have a back up, or a staple diet to add meat to.

Anyone feed ferrets and cats similarly?

Ludwig is on a 50-50 mix of a quality ferret pellet as well as a kitten kibble. It'd be neat if I could buy just a couple brands of chow and sort of mix and match for both kitty and weasel, but if no, it'd not a big deal.

What brands of wet food and what of dry food are the most nutritious?

I found this site (http://www.ferret-universe.com/care/food.asp#wysong1) that goes over ferret nutrition, is there a similar comparison site for cat food specifically?

There are a lot of threads on here about food for cats. Here is an on-site article to start you out.

www.thecatsite.com/a/choosing-the-right-food-for-your-cat

If you will go to the articles section, choose Cat Health and look at some of the feeding recommendations.

The best comparison chart for cat foods that I have found is on catinfo.org which is written by a vet. The chart only has canned/pouched foods though because she doesn't believe in feeding cats any dry food (her site explains why).

I don't know anything about ferrets, but they are also obligate carnivores right, like cats? So I would think that a raw diet would be ideal for them both. If interested in raw feeding, there is a great raw feeding forum on this site. There's a sticky at the top of the forum with a lot of valuable information. You can also post a new thread if you have any specific questions.

Yay for ferrent-hood! And more yay for rescuing ferrets, thank you for saving that baby (3 of my 4 are rescues, too). If you want to stick to dry food, EVO cat food is actually healthier for ferrets (and cheaper) than pretty much any other kibble (including EVO's ferret food). Personally I don't feed kibble because, in ferrets, it is bad for their heath (they are more obligate carnivores than cats even) and the grain in kibble converts to sugars that eventually leads to insulinoma- before I learned about all that, though, I fed EVO.

My ferrets are currently on raw, which would be another diet option that would cover both species (with different ratio amounts I'd imagine. I have yet to look into raw for cats yet) If you want to learn more about raw and how to feed raw to ferrets you can either PM me or check out the holistic ferret forum http://holisticferret60.proboards.com/index.cgi .. They even have mentor programs. There are a lot of people in there that do raw with their cats too, if you decide to go that route you might be able to snag a mentor that feeds raw to both ferrets and cats (just ask, I'm sure they'll be happy to help)

OR you could do dehydrated raw too, the simplicity of kibble with most of the benefits of raw (except dehydrated raw doesn't have bones, for calcium. I'm not sure how they compensate since I've never done dehydrated but, again, there are plenty of people on the HFF, and probably this one too, with experience in dehydrated raw)

Either way, I hope I helped :-)

PS. I'm not saying anyone there knows better than here, just that they might be able to help more on the ferret end of things

Oh and about wet food, try B.G. (before grain) brand wet food. It's 95 or 96% meat and the rest is basically vitamins etc. My kids love that stuff :-) and it's super healthy

Yeah, raw would be best for both of them, canned would be next best, but I know very well that convincing an adult ferret of that is nearly impossible! I also don't use ferret-specific kibble; my weezel is getting a mix of several high-quality, high-protein cat foods, both grain-free and grain-inclusive. I forget exactly what I used this time but I know there's NV rabbit, EVO, and BG for sure. I think there are 5 brands in there, though. I make a mix so he doesn't get too imprinted on one brand, you know how they are! But I no longer feed my cats kibble, so I made him a feeding station by cutting a small hole in a large Rubbermaid tote, so only he can get in.

Willowy said:

Yeah, raw would be best for both of them, canned would be next best, but I know very well that convincing an adult ferret of that is nearly impossible! I also don't use ferret-specific kibble; my weezel is getting a mix of several high-quality, high-protein cat foods, both grain-free and grain-inclusive. I forget exactly what I used this time but I know there's NV rabbit, EVO, and BG for sure. I think there are 5 brands in there, though. I make a mix so he doesn't get too imprinted on one brand, you know how they are! But I no longer feed my cats kibble, so I made him a feeding station by cutting a small hole in a large Rubbermaid tote, so only he can get in.

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I agree, conversion can be difficult and seem impossible but it's not   While age makes it more difficult, it all comes down to a matter of trickery     Lu was about 2 y/o when I converted her (she is my piggy and was the easiest adult), Mo was about 4.5 y/o when we started his switch and it took a very long time, and Morgs was about 3 y/o I'd gauge him as average switch rate. Willowy, you are right though, SoCo was a baby when we got him and was, by far the easiest lol. I have to say Mo was the most difficult (heck, he's probably the most difficult that I have personally encountered), he was also probably the main reason we never gave up. I knew he was older when I adopted him and that he could have some health issues but I couldn't turn him down. Needless to say, less than a year after adoption we found out that he had Adrenal disease and then we found out he had Insulinoma.. to this day, even with Lupron shots and pred 2x daily, I don't think he would be where he is. He is approx 6 years old, now, and his fur is as thick and as gorgeous as a kit. He doesn't go hazy like other insulinoma ferts tend to, he is as active and crazy as he was before he was diagnosed with Adrenal and Insulinoma and he might even be more active and crazy than our baby (SoCo who is only 2 now). I know that raw is a personal choice but I am sure it is the reason for Mo's continual good health and the reason I am replying isn't to argue but because I would love to share that with others. It can be hard to do, but I assure you it is possible. With Mo the average tricks didn't work. Eventually, if I remember right, we ended up making a soupie (made of raw meat, his kibble, a little ferretone and the B.G. canned food) and putting it on one side of a plate, then we put ferretone on the other side of the plate. You know how ferrets get so into eating 'tone that their eyes close? When he had a nice mouth full and he was at the omg-this-is-so-good closed eyes point, we spun the plate and he started eating the soup before he realized. We did that every day, adding a little less 'tone and kibble, until he would eat it with out having to be tricked... then we moved to itty bitty slivers of raw mixed with B.G. canned food, adding a little less canned food each time until he ate the raw on its own. Then we made the slivers into tiny hunks and so on and so fouth (I'm sure you guys get it, lol). It was a long process and a lot of work, but it has been so beneficial that, if I could, I would personally go and switch every one in the world's ferrets for them so they could enjoy their babies as long as possible   Don't let the difficulty/tedious explanation of Mo's switch scare you though- the majority of ferrets aren't quite so stubborn. When I can, I foster/rescue local ferrets until they can find a forever home and since I always recommend feeding raw, I start switches with them while they're waiting for a home and I have had ferrets older than Mo switch easier than he did. It all depends on the ferret... and if they're difficult, your ability to weasel them into switching. 

However if raw is not O.P.'s cup of tea, EVO and BG are great. There are a few others out there that are pretty good too, just can't think of them off the top of my head.. I also agree, that if you are using kibble, make sure you are rotating/combining different flavors. Ferrets should be getting their protein from at least three different animal sources weekly (eg. chicken, beef, pork). When I was kibble feeding, EVO was the staple and I was using BG wet like a sauce/topper to make sure they were getting three different sources, one thing I love about BG is their variety of flavors  . Every week my guys get a soupie meal and, since BG wet foods don't really contain anything bad, I occasionally still mix them in as a treat. 

Ps. Willowy, do you mind if I ask why you include NV rabbit and kibbles that include grain? I would think using kibbles that include grain would negate using grain-free kibbles..  Not trying to be combative, I am just curious... and if you would like, I would be more than happy to work with you on switching your ferrets to raw (the only reason I ask is because you said you don't feed kibble to your cats anymore, so I am guessing you like the benefits of raw but hit a wall with your woozles) Feel free to PM me if you want