From:
"Sukie Crandall"
Date: 2008-01-30 16:09:28 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: food discussion -EVO
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
If it is chicken based then some ferrets may have problems
with that since chicken is a common allergen for ferrets, so
that may account for some ferrets who do not adjust to it.
A decent number of ferrets who have intestinal inflammation
also have allergies so if a less irritating diet is being sought
for such an individual then do see if certain food ingredients
cause problems for that individual and if a hypoallergenic
food is needed.
One other point: there are some ferrets for whom the higher
protein foods are not the best choice. Those include ones
who are prone to developing cystine uroliths (one of the
types of urinary stones) and ones who have chronic kidney
disease.
Those ferrets who get cystine stones have kidneys
that do not deal well with any of four specific amino acids:
cystine, ornithine, lysine, and arginine (the COLA group).
The trick with chronic kidney disease is different: to have a
very accessible protein but lower phosphorous levels. The
usual way people reduce phosphorous is by reducing protein
but some protein sources are worse that way than others. For
example, since organ meats tend to be a problem it would be
far harder to maintain a ferret on made-at-home or raw food
and have a balanced diet unless there is supplementation of
multiple other minerals and other nutrients that the organs would
normally supply. Some other foods that are high in phosphorous
include:
carp, beef liver, chicken liver, other organ meats, fish roe, oysters,
crayfish and sardines
according to
http://www.kidney.org/atoz/atozItem.cfm?id=101
I have heard of some vets having people give older ferret kibble
supplemented with hard boiled eggs for highly accessible protein
(for heart health) when kidney disease is present (because kidney
disease and heart disease often go together). (Remember that
heart disease in ferrets does not tend to be the vascular disease
more commonly found in humans so the needs are different.)
Also, I don't know if any ferrets with chronic* kidney disease who
need phosphorous reduced have ever been tired on Feline Z/D and
I don't know what the phosphorous levels of that are like but here is
the ingredients page for that just for those who want to compare:
<http://www.hillspet.com/zSkin_2/products/product_details.jsp?
JSESSIONID=HK63YYwXgVkyBCJ31K1OeYS2obCL2bCuRqqw0XkgYICttW1112tP!738638577!
167846932!7005!8005&PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524441760666&FOLDER%3C%3Efold
er_id=2534374302037389&bmUID=1200241207882>
If that doesn't work:
http://www.hillspet.com/hillspet/utilities/selectLanguage.hjsp
and you can work from there, hopefully with success, or take a peek
when at a vet hospital.
Never-the-less, there is a reason for me to mention that food: I am
getting back to the original topic of the post.
Feline z/d is often used when food allergies are present because the
proteins are already broken down into amino acids meaning that the
body usually won't recognize the allergen and therefore will not react.
Hopefully, that makes enough sense. If not, then others can add more
or the archives can be easily used:
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
Sukie (not a vet)
Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:ferrethealth-digest@yahoogroups.com
mailto:ferrethealth-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
ferrethealth-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/