From:
brettm@uga.edu
Date: 2006-02-16 15:56:36 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] dairy??
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Author wrote:
> I never let my ferrets
> get into that state, even breeders I know that feed only raw rabbit whole
> carcase give a little milk and egg regularly to keep the right sort of gut
> bacteria alive to make things easier in the advent of illness.
But the ferret does not depend on gut bacteria to assist digestion, as humans and many other animals do. In fact, the ferret has no caecum (appendix) and its colon is virtually sterile. Furthermore, milk does not encourage the "right sort" of gut bacteria. Lactose intolerance occurs if the lactose is NOT broken down by the animal (with the lactase enzyme) before the gut bacteria can get at it and start fermenting it. Continuing to feed milk after weaning is believed to keep the body from stopping lactase production, so that the animal continues to be able to digest it. Bacteria have nothing to do with it. (Animals in the wild are unlikely to ever taste milk again after weaning, so they are genetically programmed -- as are humans -- to greatly reduce or halt lactase production after milk is withdrawn from the diet, because it would be a waste of the body's resources to keep making it.)
Brett
*SLMW 1.0* Ferrets: Drugs would be cheaper, but not as much fun.
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