From:
sukiec@optonline.net
Date: 2005-08-06 18:48:35 UTC
Subject: RE: Raw Meat Question
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <5261027.1123354115969.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
One concept which may help assess the different viewpoints is to recall that what is optimal FOLLOWS the pressures to which a population is exposed. It does not anticipate. There can be improved leeway provided by having a wider genetic base, but it does not and can not anticipate. Those who can't manage die, and the result when those deaths are more felt by certain genetic groups is the change in the proportion of the given alleles (genetic variants) in the population (i.e. evolution since that IS the definition of evolution).
As has been pointed out, when it comes to species survival the Red Queen had it right in _Alice in Wonderland_ (and forgive me if I don't get the quote exactly right): "You have to keep running as fast as you can to stay in the same place."
So, yes, there will be changes that track a history of domestication and the pressures that provided, which may account for a number of those ferrets turning out to get cystine stones on high protein diets (since the vulnerable ones did not die off on the lower protein diets but lived to reproduce often).