From:
sukiec@optonline.net
Date: 2005-07-19 19:04:17 UTC
Subject: RE: [ferrethealth] Dealing with an older ferret Oils
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <1013505.1121799857203.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
> recommendations will change over time (just as some researchers into
> human nutrition are now wondering if perhaps the recommended levels
> of Vitamin E for humans may be too low).
Correction: Vitamin D, not E
but that is also hypothetical
A lot of what we generalize the ferrets is from human nutrition but ferret ancestry is so much different. For example, our most recent ancestors probably did get decent amounts of Vitamin D even just from sun exposure due to being diurnal, BUT ferrets -- being descended from burrow dwelling crepulscular (dawn and suck peak activity) animals would have had a long ancestry with less D from that source at least so *perhaps* they can handle less D can we can. On the other hand, their ancestry has the eating of a LOT of organ meat in it and some of those, esp. liver, are very high in Vitamin A so *perhaps* their needs for A may be higher than human needs.
Even when the generalization is done from the dog (Ferrets are descended from the dog branch of Carnivora) there is a lot of difference in things like adaption to diurnal activity for many thousands of years which differentiates dogs from ferrets, and of course domestic cats although more noctural than domestic dogs also tend to have a long time behind them or being changed by humans plus they are not as closely related.
Again, my point is that none of this stuff is written in stone at this point.