>That's the safe way everyone has handled it for ages, but I am wondering
>if anyone ever has done a study to find if Taurine actually is a nutrient
>that they can't make for themselves?
 
Dr. Kawasaki wrote an article about retrinal atrophy, and if memory serves,
in it he mentions that he fed a taurine-restricted diet to some ferrets
and watched their eyes really closely to see if they had retina trouble.
Apparently in some species, not enough taurine leads to retinal
degeneration.  Anyway, he *did* see signs of retinal changes during the
taurine-restricted diet (and not long duration, either, although the
numbers elude me and I can't find my copy of the article now).  He put
them back on a good diet at that point.  Citation to the article is J of
Small Exotic Animal Medicine 1992; 1(3): 137.  So that's one indicator
that they can't make it for themselves...
 
I have idly wondered if there is any chance that ferrets might need *more*
taurine than is currently available in commonly-available foods.  They
seem to have a high incidence of both retinal degeneration and dilated
cardiomyopathy, and both of those problems have been linked to insufficient
taurine in other species.  Cats used to have lots of dilated cardiomyopathy
before taurine was routinely added to kibble.  Of course I'm no scientist
and without a study, it's pure frustrated speculation on my part as I have
one blind with retinal atrophy and one with severe DCM right now (likely to
be genetic or have some other cause), but it kinda makes me wonder.
 
Ponderingly,
-Pam S.
[Posted in FML issue 3316]