I purchased a ferret about a month ago from Petco (out of town). The only food in town I was able to get was a cheap food with corn as the first ingredient. Because I want a healthy happy ferret I did my research and ordered Zupreem ferret food. He has been on that for 2 weeks. He smells worse on the better food & his stools are looser. Should I try another food? Do you think it's the food that is making him smell more? Any..and I mean ANY help or info on ferrets in general is welcome. Thanks!

I have my 18 ferrets on Zupreem ferret food, orijen kitten and cat food and Evo kitten and cat since it is the same as the ferret evo and is less costly. I order my food online since I have so many ferrets. I at one time had 34 but am trying to get down to 10 so I don't take in ferrets anymore I use to rescue. I don't have a bad smell at all and didn't even with the higher number of ferrets. Now their poops sometimes are loose for awhile after you change foods so give it another week. Do you clean their cage weekly and their litters daily? I do this and that also helps keep any smell down. I don't know where you are located but ferrets here in the united states are fixed and also have their scent gland removed so that also makes them less smelly. I have friends over and when I show them my ferrets room they are shocked because they thought ferrets were smelly but I find dogs more smelly than a cat or ferrets. Also only bathe them when they are really dirty I usually bathe them after I get them so they smell like my home but then wait until they are dirty and sometimes that can take over a year or two. Bathing them to much will cause them to smell.

Removing the scent gland only keeps them from emitting a spray when they're scared or angry (like with skunks), it doesn't make them less smelly. ;)

Better food can make them a little stinkier at first but I believe it has more to do with how bad the old food was. They have to get all of that corn out of their system. It will get better! Mine smelled very much like corn chips and fish for a few weeks after changing from Marshalls.

About the loose stools, did you blend any of his old food in when changing to Zupreem? If it was a cold turkey switch straight to the new food the loose stools might last a little longer but as long as the stool isn't completely watery and he is still drinking and eating I wouldn't worry too much. Also, since he switched so well once already, it might be a good time to blend another high quality kibble or two in slowly so you have more options down the road.

raml, I just got back from my local pet store to grab my ferret food and they informed me that they just changed the ingredients on the EVO ferret food. It is no longer identical. Not sure if that makes a difference to you. There are some "binder" changes you might want to look into. I just found out today so I figured I would share the news. ( :

As far as the loose stools...it just takes time. Mine came home with me after eating Marshall's. We did the switch over to Zupreem which gave them horrible diarrhea and of course that smelled awful. You should always transition pets food gradually to help with GI upset. This is the ratio I do on all my pets when we switch diets:

3/4 cup old with 1/4 cup new 
1/2 cup old and 1/2 cup new 
1/4 cup old and 3/4 new
then just new. (each transition was for 2-3 days) ~week transition time.

It helped them tremendously when I switched them over from Zupreem to Epigen 90. Maybe that will help!