From:
"Sukie Crandall"
Date: 2007-04-13 16:32:00 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: Removing kibble as a source of food for ferrets?
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
That would pretty much amount to throwing out the baby
with the bath water.
As multiple references have noted the inspection problems
also exist (though not as greatly) for human grade foods and
for generic (human and veterinary) meds. For example, see
<http://www.peoplespharmacy.com/archives/joes_blog/
dog_food_disaster_casts_doubt_on_generic_drugs.asp>
Furthermore, the affected foods involved about 1% of all pet foods,
and the rate that those foods caused found kidney failure problems
of any degree (i.e. fatal or survived) for individuals who ate the foods
(from the data of a large animal hospital chain working with the FDA)
was about 3 individuals of every 10,000 who ate the foods with the
melamine.
That is actually FAR lower than the rate of people who in the U.S. who
have nutritional disorders from not even being able to balance a human
diet right. (Working from some papers by Rebecca L. Remillard, PhD, DVM,
Diplomat ACVN whose doctorates are in nutrition and in veterinary
medicine. She is veterinary professor at Tufts and the papers of hers
that I have read are for Veterinary Nutritional Consultations, inc and titled
"Feeding Raw Diets to Family Pets" and "Feeding Homemade (raw or
cooked) Diets to Family Pets". Both have useful bibliographies for people
who want to follow on further because doing one's own diet right
absolutely requires that follow-through.
See the article archive here:
http://www.petdiets.com/Library/articlelist.asp?subid=18&catid=9&num=3
or begin with
http://www.petdiets.com/Library/category.asp
and work outward.
See also a ref I mention with a URL for another poster's question -- perhaps
yesterday? It's an FDA Guidelines pdf.
Balancing the diet of a ferret right to not have either acute or chronic
problems is harder.
The closest a person can get to doing it right is to provide a varied whole
prey diet, but even that is not the same as a wild diet because it is not
as varied, because adult and juvenile animals vary in levels of nutrients,
and so do animals in different seasons, and because farmed animals
differ in nutrient values from wild animals. Furthermore, farmed animals
are more exposed to a number of illness that increase in rates under
crowded conditions.
There are so many things which can go wrong and often do.
If the calcium levels are too low compared to the phosphorous levels
then the body will leech calcium from the bones and teeth to process
the needed phosphorous and that can result in tooth loss and in rickets.
If there is too much D3 then hypercalcaemia can occur.
If there is too much Vitamin C then copper can be interfered with and
in turn throw off iron levels.
A very recent (human) study shows that too much niacin in at least one
species can resemble an anaphylactic reaction if it occurs acutely, and
cause liver failure is chronic. (The acute form can also be fatal.)
The list can go on and on.
Although I am not personally familiar with them I have seen a vet
recommend that those who design their own diets hire veterinary
nutritional consultants such as those at
http://www.petdiets.com
I have no idea how that consulting group compares to others.
--- In ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com, "cherylnj81" <Sheryl81@...> wrote:
>
> I am very concerned over the recent recalls and such and I have been
> thinking of taking my ferrets off kibble and just feeding a
> comprehensive form of duck soup and maybe making my own home-made
> treats and kibble (I don't know if it is possible to make my own
> kibble or not).
>
> Does anyone have any suggestions of things to watch out for or their
> own recipes/experiences with minimizing kibble as much as possible (if
> not completely) in the ferret diet?
>
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