From:
sukiec@optonline.net
Date: 2004-01-10 00:06:02 UTC
Subject: re: How firm are wild polecat and ferret stools?
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <3127425.1073693162642.JavaMail.root@indium.smartgroups.com>
By pudding I was thinking thick pudding not liquid, but from what I've been told in the wild many bear stools are thick pudding-like (hense term "bear pies") and the raccoons i worked with years ago normally varied from thick pudding like to tubular. It would be intersting to know of the combination of aiming for tubular stools for ferrets and also aiming for as natural a diet as possible are in conflict. Then again, it may be that the wild diet is lower in minerals or higher in some fiber types than realized since either would make stools more firm.
Loose pudding consistency could cause rectal prolapses but a "fluffier" stool (Can't you tell I've talked to someone who studies this?) -- i.e. a thick pudding consistency is something I've been told will give muscles enough to push against (Think of a baking tube with icing or batter in it. Icing is tubular but cookie batter is more of splat but still takes a good push.) but I'd welcome more opinions on that and other aspects of the conversation.
I've heard from an Australian carcass and milk feeder that the stools of her's are formed, but how well the meats she uses correlate with wild diet, I don't know. Meat sources and organ types vary a lot in the mineral content both in types and amounts, it turns out.
It may be a trickier problem than thought or there may be more missing pieces of information than had been thought.