Re:  vinegar and water squirted at fuzzies...
I personally wouldn't want to be squirted in the eye with a vinegar
solution.  I'm sure the fuzzies don't either.  I don't actually recommend
squirt guns as a discipline method at all; while some ferrets get the
message, and others think it's a great game to get soaked, some will see
it as an aggressive act on the owner's part.  I'm not condemning anyone
for doing it; it's just not my method of choice.  I've worked with too
many neurotic bundles of teeth to feel comfortable with anything that
could turn a ferret into one.
 
>IN all the years I have been feeding Mazuri (10 years now), I have never
>seen the ingredient list change in any way.  And, if one thinks about it,
>who cares what the composition of the food is if the guaranteed analysis
>is always met?...
>
>Regarding an attached label vs. a printed bag label Purina has ALWAYS
>used separate labels, sewn to the bag on their commercial animal food
>products, be it for horses, cows, pigs, hamsters, ferrets, mice, rats,
>etc.  (Mazuri is a commercial feed)... Use of the tags means they save
>printing costs of the bag the food is shipped in.  To you and me, a penny
>or two saved per bag means nothing, but to a feed manufacturer, a penny or
>two a bag, multiplied by 500,000, starts to add up to a sizable savings.
>
>Carla, what you say sounds good, but I suspect that all feed manufacturers
>do the same thing, adjust their ingredient content to meet the minimum
>analysis of their individual product.  I 'think' that is required by law
>actually...It is equally as bad for feed to vastly exceed the minimum
>label standards as well.  But, unless any of the particulars on the label
>regarding order of ingredients or percentages of ingredients changes, the
>feed is basically always the same.
 
This is misinformation.  Please don't spread any information so widely
unless you're very sure of what you're saying.  Least-cost formulas do
exist; often the formula changes are infrequent or minor, but there's
nothing to stop them from being much more major.  Sometimes it's as simple
as that little term "animal fat" or "animal meal," and they don't even
have to rewrite the labels.
 
But the real reason this is important is a simple one: all proteins are
not equal.  Proteins from soybeans are not as easy for a ferret to digest
as proteins from chicken.  Those from chicken feet are not as high-quality
as those from chicken muscle.  So the "guaranteed analysis" can be
perfectly valid, and the food can be changing in quality constantly.  And,
although I'm no expert on the legal issues, I don't believe they have to
relabel every bag anyway--just need to update labels periodically.  Anyone
know the legal stuff?
 
I don't know how many times we've heard stories on this list of people's
ferrets refusing to eat one batch or another of the food they're used to,
because the formula was changed.  And yes, they often reportedly get
diarrhea, too.  Assuming that food manufacturers have the best interests
of the animals in mind is like assuming that pharmaceutical companies
have the best interests of humans in mind.  Some might.  Most do not.
 
Jen and the Crazy Business
http://home.maine.rr.com/tesseract
[Posted in FML issue 3112]