From:
Sandi@HouseRabbit.org
Date: 2001-03-02 21:09:00 UTC
Subject: Pineapple juice
>There were some early posts on pineapple juice. This has been
>rumored for years to work in rabbits due to the level of papain (an
>enzyme) in pineapple juice. Doesn't work. Hair is composed of
>keratin, the same thing that your nails are composed of - it is one
>of the toughest things in nature. Pineapple juice is not going to
>digest it. If you don't believe me, try it - but use the fresh
>squeezed pineapple, not the surgary watered down variety you get in
>the store.
Ah ha...something I do know something about! :-) Us rabbit people do use
pineapple juice to help break up hair balls, and it frequently does work in
rabbits. NOT to digest hair, but rather to break down the food that's a
large percentage of the mass called a hair ball, in rabbits. Breaking up
the food (rabbit pellets) allows the hair to "unravel" and pass thru the
rabbit.
Pineapple juice would not work for hair balls in cats, because there's very
little food...almost all hair. I suspect that ferrets hair balls are also
composed primarily of hair, rather than of food and hair, so it would not
work for ferrets.
Sandi :-)