From:
ferret_girl79@yahoo.com
Date: 2004-03-26 06:33:51 UTC
Subject: Re: carbohydrates
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <29751107.1080303964878.JavaMail.nobody@strontium.smartgroups.com>
> If you look at how much carbohydrates are in a
> rat carcass (1.2%) or in a mouse carcass (4-5%),
> you can see they have a low carbohydrate level. These
> small prey animals are the "food" that ferrets were designed
> to eat.
> A low carbohydrate food such as Gerber's baby
> food, or Pretty Birds "Natural Gold for Ferrets", or Hill's a/d
> is a lot closer to what a ferret was desiged to eat.
I would think that for a healthy ferrets there is no danger in processing this small amount of carbohydrates. But what of a ferret with a pancreas already exhausted to the point of forming cancer - from all the carbohydrate processing? Would more carbohydrates not add insult to injury?
> Remember ferrets can use protein to make glucose. Thus the
> high protein, low carbohydrate diet ("Atkins diet for
> ferrets") works well for ferrets and for ferrets with
> insulinoma.
Ferrets use protein to make glucose.. I don't see how the rest of that sentence rationalizes carbohydrate use in a insulinomic ferret? :(
Thanks!
Anna.