Q: [Paraphrased from a dozen + emails] Regarding Bob's Chicken Gravy: [Is
microwaving ok?  Is pressure cooking ok?  Is it ok to add liquid vitamins?
In it ok to use Ensure instead of nutrical?  Can I change the formula?  Can
I omit the Nutrical?  Will you market the formula?  I can't get my ferret
to eat it!]
 
A: At a quarter a question, I should make a bundle.  A number of these
emails referred to FML posts.  I haven't been reading the FML for the last
month or so (I will, just not much energy right now), so I am unaware of
current events and discussions.  Forgive any answers which duplicate other
responses.
 
COOKING: The more you cook a food, the more it is denatured.  My cooking
times are extremely short.  I see no problem with microwaving a food to
warm it, although I personally warm it by adding hot water, which not only
brings the cold food up to body temperature, BUT also provides a tasty
'juice" my ferrets love to drink.  I support the use of pressure cooking
because it shortens cooking times, causing less damage to the basic food
components.
 
VITAMINS: Vitamins can be dangerous things.  While older publications state
excess water soluble vitamins (C, B, etc.) are eliminated without harm to
the organism, recent work suggests large excesses can cause problems.
Excess fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E, etc.) can be toxic and kill your
ferret.  The ONLY reason I use nutrical in Bob's Chicken gravy is because
a) the amount of sugar is minimal, b) the proportions of vitamins (and
fatty acids) are balanced for carnivores, c) it replaces those vitamins
denatured by cooking, and d) there is no need to measure, so anyone can
use it without danger.  Adding liquid vitamins is ok *IF* they are approved
by your vet and you add them in safe amounts recommended by your vet.
 
NUTRICAL: You shouldn't eliminate nor reduce by more than 50% the Nutrical
because it replaces essential fatty acids and vitamins denatured by
cooking.  It does contain some sugars, but on a unit dose level, they are
minimal and provide far less sugar than comparable kibble.
 
ENSURE: There are several formulations, so I will just discuss regular
Ensure.  You can go to their site and see other formulations if you like
( http://www.drinktoyourhealth.com/html/b01.html ).  Ensure is a diet
supplement designed for HUMANS, not carnivores.  If you just considered the
ratio of protein to fat to carbohydrate, the percentages would be Protein
16%, Fat 11%, Carbohydrate 73%.  The carbohydrates are of three types; corn
syrup (glucose), maltodextrin (a glucose polymer), and sugar (sucrose).
The first three ingredients of Ensure, after water, are sugars, which
makes sense when you consider what Ensure was formulated to do; provide a
balanced source of nutrients and calories for HUMANS.  It lacks several
important nutrients required by carnivores.
 
I have two problems with Ensure.  First, the proportions of nutrients are
designed to support omnivores, not carnivores, and the balance of the
various components in Ensure are different than what a ferret might need.
Second, Ensure is mostly flavored carbohydrates in even WORSE proportions
than in kibbles.  Not only are carbohydrates bad for ferrets suffering
pancreatic disease, but it is likely that a diet rich in carbohydrates
can CAUSE pancreatic disease in ferrets.  Since ferrets eat food to fill
caloric need and then stop, if too many sugars are present in a food, you
run the risk of the ferret getting sufficient calories but not enough
vitamins, proteins or fats.  While I am sure small doses of Ensure are
benign to ferrets, I cannot recommend using it with Bob's Chicken Gravy
because there is no way to insure the proper proportions of nutrients AND
because of the extremely high sugar content.
 
FORMULATION: I have badgered three carnivore nutrition experts to evaluate
Bob's Chicken Gravy, and several ferret people have done similarly, and it
has always passed expert review.  I recognize people love taking a good
idea and tweaking it to make it better (some just do it for ego reasons,
other for scientific ones), so haven't really commented on minor changes.
However, remember it took months of research for me to come up with the
formula, to make sure the various components were in balance, and to create
it from easy to obtain materials.  Tweaking is one thing, but substitution
is another.  Using the preceding comments as an example, replacing the
nutrical with Ensure drastically changes the formulation, with results I
cannot predict.  Please don't monkey with the formula, and if you do,
please do not associate your formulation with Bob's Chicken Gravy.  Call
it something else.
 
MARKETING: I maintain copyright on the formula and name (in other words,
while I allow free use, I maintain intellectual and copyright ownership),
but I will NOT market Bob's Chicken Gravy.  While I spent months working on
the formula, and begged several experts in carnivore nutrition to evaluate
it, I did not design it to earn a profit.  I am open to granting licenses
for people to market it, providing I am sure the profits support genuine
ferret causes, but that would be the only exception I would make.
 
FEEDING: Ferrets imprint on the smell of their food at a very early age.
Older ferrets may not recognize Bob's Chicken Gravy as a food, and may
refuse to try it.  Put some on your finger tip and either rub it on their
nose, or rub it on their teeth.  Stick their paw in it to make them lick
it off.  Cover it with kibble dust.  After a few attempts, they should
change their minds and relish the food.  With stubborn ferrets, strongly
imprinted, you might have to force feed a few times.  Success depends on
effort, so don't give up through frustration of laziness.  Work at it and,
excepting the occasional ferret, most will come to love the stuff.
 
Bob C and 15 Mo' Chicken Loving Carnivores
[Posted in FML issue 3156]