From:
"Sukie Crandall"
Date: 2007-05-01 18:35:07 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: Food
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
Remember that if just meat is used instead of whole
animal the diet is not balanced. A meat diet lacks
many minerals and other nutrients, and the types of
meats vary in how much they have of some nutrients.
In other words, "meat is not 'just meat' ".
A note about lamb: not all meats have similar amino
acid compositions Lamb is low in taurine (and I would
have to check but I think that ham also is). This means
that a diet which is regularly high in lamb without
supplementary taurine could set the stage for both eye
problems and heart problems. While this problem may
not be as pronounced for ferrets and dogs as it for cats
it does need to be taken seriously. Mustelids (including
ferrets) are (like the procyonids) considered to be from
the most recent large branch of the canid grouping.
Note specifically that the grains mentioned are whole
grains.
A recent article on that topic:
http://www.vetcontact.com/en/art.php?a=1524&t=
BEGIN A FEW QUOTED SEGMENTS
?
Dilated cardiomyopathy is thought to be associated
with low blood taurine concentration in dogs. This large
study...
?
No effect of age, sex, body weight, body size, or diet was
seen on plasma and whole blood taurine concentrations.
...
Mean whole blood taurine concentrations were lower in
dogs fed diets containing whole grain rice, rice bran or barley.
...
The lowest whole blood concentrations were seen in dogs
fed lamb or lamb meal and rice diets.
...
Plasma methionine and cysteine concentrations were lower
in dogs fed diets with animal meals or turkey, and whole
grain rice, rice bran or barley.
END QUOTES
Journal Article used for basis of the Vet Contact article:
Delaney SJ, Kass PH, Rogers QR, Fascetti AJ. (2003): Plasma
and whole blood taurine in normal dogs of varying size fed
commercially prepared food. In: J Anim Physiol Anim Nutr
(Berl). 2003 Jun;87(5-6):236-44.
More recent related articles can be linked to from their
abstracts at
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi
Cooking, which Vicki mentions reduces the risk of some
diseases that can be caught from raw animals. Both sides of
this are discussed ***ad nauseum*** in the archives in terms
of rarity, severity, etc. so pretty much anything you want to
learn on that can be found there.
Oh, one more expert reference in relation to one subset of
marketed natural diets:
http://www.fda.gov/cvm/Guidance/Guide122.pdf
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