Hi Marie
 
I don't think that European ferrets are that much healthier than American
ones.  I do think the breeding farms and early neuter contribute to bad
ferret health but we in Europe have our fair share of ill ferrets.  All the
people I know that have ferrets have lost ferrets because of diseases and
mostly cancer.  I suppose there are more American people writing to the
list than European ones so we hear of more sick American ferrets.  Plus a
lot of people in Europe just keep ferrets to use them for hunting/ pest
control.  I can just speak for Britain now but a lot of people are just
ignorant and don't know much about ferrets at all and wouldn't in their
wildest dreams take a sick ferret to the vets for tests and operations or
take dead ferrets in for a post mortem.  If the ferret is sick- it gets
killed.  Gee, if the ferret isn't a good worker it gets killed.  I bet
many people wouldn't even realise that their ferret is sick because they
hardly spend time with it.  And then they think their 3 year old ferret
died of old age.  I've heard it all!
 
But back to ferret diseases, if more European ferret owners were on the
Internet and FML and were able to write and understand English properly,
I'm sure we'd hear about all the sick ferrets in Europe.  I do think early
neuter increases the risk of cancer but so do kibble foods.  Some people
here who feed their ferrets a more natural diet seem to have old healthy
ferrets that actually do die of old age whereas our kibble fed ferrets
seem to die of mainly cancer by the time they're around 6 years old (or
younger...).  I blame the high percentage of carbohydrates in kibble for
the high rate of cancers, I'm sure ferrets will do better on a meat and
bone diet with little or without carbohydrates.  I'll report on that in
about 8-10 years when I know whether or not the ferrets live longer and
healthier lives but for now I believe that raw meat is better than kibble.
 
Best wishes from
Ulrike
and Jilly, Jack, Bella, Tom, Mason, Baby, Dana, Fox, Reno, Rose, Jasmine,
Barney and Spike
 
Missing Angel, Hope and Igor
 
West Wales Ferret Welfare
http://www.ferretlove.freeserve.co.uk
Last update 20/12/00
[Posted in FML issue 3318]