Yes, Ferrets can eat mice. Biologically, ferrets are carnivores; this implies that their diet should contain meat. The Veterinary Partner explains that the ideal diet for a ferret should compose 30-35% of protein, and the protein source should be meat-based. Therefore, they need the nutrients from the meat of mice and other animals to stay healthy.
Further Reading: “Can Ferrets Eat Bread?“
Table of Contents
Can Ferrets Eat Mice Safely?
Yes, ferrets can safely eat mice. What does this mean? This means that you can always add mice to your pet’s diet. However, it is better to provide raw meat for your pet to eat. This is because raw meat has always been the biologically appropriate food for ferrets. In the wild, polecats hunt for meals themselves— they are natural predators, and they survive by feeding on their prey. Domesticated polecats also need raw meat in their diet.
Therefore, your pet can safely eat freshly killed mice. But does this mean it is safe to serve ferrets mice that are house pests? No! Be careful while allowing your pet to eat mice that are pests— this kind of mice might have parasites or bacteria that can be transmitted to your ferret. Besides, as pests, there is a possibility that they have ingested poison; that makes it risky to serve your pet with one of them.
In the wild, polecats hunt for meals themselves— they are natural predators, and they survive by feeding on their prey. Domesticated polecats also need raw meat in their diet.
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How To Feed Your Ferret Mice?
Your ferret’s diet is an integral part of its growth and overall development. Therefore, you need to pay attention to the food you give to your pet. So, if you are open to feeding your pet mouse, how should you include mice in your pet’s diet?
Firstly, you shouldn’t let your pet hunt down a mouse herself. This is because your pet can get injured in the process. Therefore, you should provide the mice for your pet. But instead of hunting mice yourself, it is better to get the parasite-free ones from a reliable and trusted source; for instance, a snake expert. Also, do not serve your pet frozen mice; she might refuse to eat them because she does not identify them as food. Besides, frozen food can injure your pet while she is trying to eat it.
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How Many Mice Should Ferret Eat In A Day?
It depends on whether you have a male ferret or a female, their weight, and what time of the year. A male ferret will eat 3-4 large adult mice per day in the winter, some can eat even more. In the spring/summer 3 adult mice are enough. If we are talking about rats, a big ferret can eat a small-medium rat each day in the spring or winter. In the summer half of a medium rat will be plenty.
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Are Ferrets Good Mousers?
Ferrets are natural rodent hunters in the wild and sometimes even at home. Their hunting abilities are one of the reasons humans used them to catch small rodents. If you own a ferret and a mouse in your home, chances are; your ferret will kill or at least try to kill the mouse. However, your ferret might not eat the mouse— this is because for polecats, killing mice is not necessarily about hunger but their predatory instinct. Mice are powerless against ferrets, and this is why they hide for safety whenever they perceive a ferret’s scent.
Nevertheless, one good thing about ferrets is that they are impressionable from a young age. If you want to get a domesticated mouse as a pet, you should introduce it to your ferret when the latter is still young. That way, your polecat will see the mouse as a playmate instead of food. But if this doesn’t work out as planned, keep the two animals in separate parts of your home and never let them be close to each other!
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Will A Ferret Kill A Mouse?
Ferrets will probably kill any random mouse they find in your home. As earlier mentioned, it is not necessarily because they want to eat the mouse but more because of their instincts. And this is the reason mice have naturally been known to be scared of ferrets. Therefore, where both animals are within close proximity, your ferret will find and kill the mouse.
Many ferret owners who adopted mice reported meeting their mice dead. So, it is probably not a good idea to have a mouse in the same house as a ferret. However, if it has to happen, you must pay attention to make sure your mouse stays alive. You can do this by placing the mouse in a place that the ferret would be unable to reach.
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Will A Ferret Kill Rats?
Ferrets are natural mousers and instinctively go after mice whenever they see one. On rare occasions, a ferret might play around with the mice and let it go. Both in most cases, they will kill both mice and rats. But this doesn’t mean that your pet will eat the rats after killing them because ferrets are picky about their food. However, wild polecats mostly kill their prey to consume them. And if your pet has exhibited this same behavior, you should try and stop it. Rats may be carrying parasites or ingest poisonous substances that make them hazardous to your ferret’s health. The best thing is to control what your pet eats by getting rats from trusted suppliers.
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Final Thoughts
The bottom line is: Ferrets can eat mice and even rats. However, you must pay attention to your pet’s diet. Your ferret needs a diet that is high in protein and fat to stay healthy and active. But most importantly, they should derive their nutrients from a raw diet. Unfortunately, the problem with raw diets is that they might contain parasites that can harm your pet. Therefore, you must ensure that the raw food is free from parasites, and the same goes for mice or rats.
But apart from meat, you can give your pet once in a while canned food and treats. But never make them your pet’s major diet. The Veterinary Partner advises that treats should just account for 10 percent of your pet’s daily diet. Besides, unless your ferrets are raised purposely to hunt, you should discourage them from killing mice, rats, and other animals on their own. Doing that will make your pet more accomodating with other pets that naturally are prey to them. Moreover, it will also prevent your pet from catching parasites and bacteria from infected rodents.
