Dr. Willard was kind enough to write me a letter.  He was afraid that I
might not be getting enough vitamins and minerals with Bob C soup, and
explained that his chicken by product meal does include some muscle meat
and does contains internal organs, and that ferrets need more than muscle
meat.
 
I hope no one thinks that Bob C. soup does not include bones and the egg
shells, and all the other ingredients that it has.  I use a/d prescription
feline food-two cans-per bag of frozen soup, and add B, E, C liquid
vitamins and ground flax seed oil to mine.
 
No one should just be feeding the muscle of the chicken alone to their
ferrets.
 
My diet for my guys is very expensive.  It takes 3 hours of preparing about
$25 of chicken every 3 weeks.  The a/d cat food is over $20 per case.
Ferretvitte is $5 a tube.  My guys still have 3 bowls of kibble changed
twice a day left out for them.
 
I have no children, so my ferrets are right on the top of the list as to
who gets care first in my life.  The only reason I started eating eggs was
so my guys could have the egg shells in their diet.  I realize that this
cannot be so for everyone.
 
***I Also know that Bob C. chicken soup is not some 20 year scientific
experiment with specific documentation as to the exact benefits.**
 
I just know that when my guys with cancer have not eaten this stuff for two
days--- They end up at the emergency vets.  This happened to Baby, Tiger,
and Little.
 
Little seizures when he goes without eating this stuff.  The last seizure
was over an hour.  I thought it was all over.
 
AGAIN--this could all just be coincidence and nothing more.  I--
personally-- however, don't believe so.  I am not a scientist.  I just
see something here that appears to be working remarkably well for me.
 
I wouldn't be stupid enough to waste all these hours and all this money if
I did not believe this soup makes a difference.  I don't: NO-I won't wait
until they are sick again to start giving this stuff.  I ask no one else
to give this soup to their ferret.
 
Dr. Willard wrote that his chicken by products is in the classification of
unfit for human consumption, but is NOT maggoty or cancerous tissue.  If
I understand correctly, he is saying that chicken by products is divided
into healthy and unhealthy-though all of it is unfit for human consumption
because lungs and intestines are naturally defined this way.
 
I have sincerely not read of anything whatsoever about CAT food being
separated and categorized into healthy and diseased chicken by product
meal.  And a year and a half ago, I did considerable reading on this
subject.  AAFCO had an article classifying meats I tried to put on the FML
around April of 1998-but BIG would not let it through.( I can't remember
why now.  I was quoting people??)  There was no division of this nature in
that reading that I can recall.
 
I will ask the people involved in making life better for chickens what they
know of this and let you all know.  And someone else may write here and
give us name and address of where we can get this exact info.  I see
nothing of this on any of my bags of kibble here.  And as I stated-most
of my books are gone.
 
Don't want to mislead anyone And now I would like to know about this sub
classification I have not read of yet.
 
My profound thanks to Dr. Willard for his concern.
Lisette
 
[Moderator's note: I don't remember that 1998 reject specifically, though
if it was the AAFCO guidelines, or a substantial portion of them, I would
likely reject them.  The guidelines are copyrighted and offered for sale
through AAFCO.  BIG]
[Posted in FML issue 3133]