How often are ferrets supposed to eat meat?

My Grandma and Mom got me a 2 month old baby boy ferret named Louie over Easter Break. I'm not sure what to feed him besides kibble. I know that ferrets need to eat meat because their built for eating meat. How much meat should I give Louie per day? Per week? What kinds of meats should I give him?

Go to a local pets hop and ask. I don't think you feed them actual pieces of meat.

Daily. It can be in the form of kibble, canned or actual meat. If your interested in raw here is a guidehttp://holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/55/general-feeding-guidelines-cats-ferretOtherwise a good quality grain free kibble or canned cat food is fine. Here is a kibble charthttp://moredooks.herobo.com/search.php?chart=ferretGood canned foods are natural balanec, natures variety, halo, merrick before grain, felidae, taste of the wild, blue wilderness, evangers, weruva etc.

I strongly recommend you COMPLETELY avoid ALL commercial cat/dog/ferret foods and feed a varied diet of whole appropriate prey items (your ferret will thank you for it)! Canned and kibble diets (even the more expensive so called "premium" brands) are nasty highly processed rubbish which is designed more to keep the pet food manufacturers (and those who sell/promote it) rich than your ferret at optimum health (despite what the pretty label says)! Pet stores, ferret breeders, and vets have vested interests in selling or promoting a particular brand (or don't know any better) and all to often recommend these diets over an all natural diet of whole raw prey (more money to be made that way). It should be noted that vets are given minimal quality education in nutrition (often provided by PET FOOD COMPANIES - talk about bias on the basis of personal interests!), so unless they opt to go on to do further in depth training in nutrition many of them end up recommending a commercial diet because that's what they have been taught to be best.Commercial diets haven't been around for that long, and not enough quality/unbiased research has gone into the LONG TERM effects of feeding pets a highly processed commercial diet to determine if its truly the best option. An increasing number of carnivore pets (dogs/cats/ferrets) fed on commercial pet foods are developing numerous dental/gum disorders, cancers, etc. However nature has been providing these carnivores with whole uncooked prey for thousands of years and they have done very well on it in the wild. With the relaxed pet food labeling laws there is no way to accurately tell exactly whats in the food and pet food manufactures can legally throw pretty much any rubbish together and call it "scientifically formulated""All natural" or "Nutritionally complete". Kibble and canned foods are cooked to the point where pretty much any nutrition in the original ingredients is destroyed, then a few synthetic vitamins/minerals (which probably aren't as easily absorbed by the body) are then chucked in. Many of them contain poor protein sources which are harder for the ferret's system to digest (including hair/hoof/etc), and contain fruits/veggies/grains which a carnivores digestive system cannot properly digest. A ferrets digestive system has evolved to digest RAW and UNPROCESSED food from ANIMALS so their digestive system struggles with breaking down and absorbing cooked foods (imagine if you as an evolved human had to live on a diet of uncooked meat).The ideal diet for your ferret would be a variety of WHOLE and UNCOOKED appropriate prey items complete with fur/feathers/organs/bones. Appropriate prey includes rats/mice, day old chicks, whole quails, and rabbits. These can easily be bought frozen from one of the many pet stores or other outlets that supply reptile foods, and stored in your freezer then thawed as needed. This is the best way to ensure that your ferret is getting all the nutrients he needs at the correct levels. If you are some how able to get a regular supply of these fresh (as in unfrozen and freshly killed), that would be better, but not ESSENTIAL. Feeding this way should ensure that the ferret gets all the nutrients he needs at the right levels, and give him the chance to exercise his jaws and keep his teeth clean by ripping into and chewing on prey.If for some reason you are unable to feed WHOLE prey then a second best option (better than commercial pet foods) then is to offer a variety of different UNCOOKED muscle/organ meats (chicken/cow/sheep/etc) and UNCOOKED bone. Variety and careful research is critical here as your ferret needs different amounts of different muscle and organ (kidney/liver/brain/guts/eyes/etc) meats. This diet takes a bit more thought and planning/research, but is still much better than commercial pet food. Never offer cooked meat/bones as ferrets cannot properly digest cooked meat and cooked bones are more likely to splinter and pierce your ferrets mouth or gut.I have listed a few excellent sources of further information in my sources and doing a google search for raw feeding ferrets will bring up a whole heap of more information. Good luck