From:
"SukieC"
Date: 2012-02-15 16:32:28 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Lifespan question
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
How much activity time do your ferrets get, Debi, and how athletic and trim and muscular are they?
The FHL and FML member (mentioned because of archives) who I know who has had the most consistently long lifespans is MC.
His ferrets during that discussion had a variety of balanced food types available to them. IF I recall right that might have been from EITHER raw or homemade cooked to kibble and they ate what they personally preferred. Some liked to have a range of types of foods while others had more narrow preferences. I recall that some only ate kibble but not if some only ate the alternatives to kibble.
What MC was able to do differently from many of us was he was able to provide a very large play area with a lot of interesting types of ferret playground activities and his ferrets were extremely active. We have a room for the ferrets ourselves but it has to be small and has to serve a secondary function so while it has some playground like things in it there are only a few meaning that the ferrets don't get as much activity though we try to make sure that they are very active multiple time each day. Our's are in a large multi-level cage at night for safety's sake but in the day they have that room and several times each day they are out of that room for supervised playtime in most of our small condo.
In humans there are many aspects of health which are better among the very active: balance (fewer injuries), circulatory health, fewer hormonal malignancies, less diabetes, sharper intellect with aging, and more. Over and over and over again studies over the last several decades have indicated that active people are healthier in so very many ways that are so very basic that I can't help but think that for other species this may well also be true. If MC's ferrets had the fine health and long lifespans he discussed either here or on the FHL (or both but I lack time to check the archives right now) due to athleticism then that is something people can work on improving for their ferrets, either by figuring out toys they can have always available, ways the ferrets can spend a lot less time in cages (not possible for many shelters for other excellent reasons), and for working on interactive games they themselves can play with their ferrets to exercise the ferrets and people at the same time.
BTW, there are so very many aspects of health now known to be improved by having sufficient musculature that there is actually a medical condition name for not having sufficient muscle: sarcopenia, which usually refers to the loss of muscle with aging but can refer to a deprivation of muscle from other causes, too.
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