Hi Sadie
 
>Sorry, I forgot to add this to my last post.  When you feed animals meat
>you can cook it but when you do it kills off all the beneficial enzymes.
>The enzymes are essential for maintaining a healthy immune system.
 
I don't know about the immune system, but (digestive) enzymes help digest
food.  All foods come with enzymes that are needed to digest that food and
cooking destroys the enzymes as you said.  I'm supplementing my guy's raw
diet with an enzyme supplement at the moment, it helps them digest the food
better.  They'd been on kibble for so long that the older ferrets had a few
problems switching over and had the odd loose stool.  With the enzymes they
don't have that problem anymore.  Enzymes also help to get the most out of
a food.
 
>You can buy enzymes in a powdered form to supplement an animals cooked
>diet (similar, I assume to human acidophilus) but raw meat is always the
>best source for this.
 
Acidophilus is a probiotic supplement.  Many people give it to animals that
are fed a raw diet.  You got to use the non-dairy one that is stored in the
fridge at health food shops.  Acidophilus is one of the good bugs (no Lynn,
that doesn't include lady bugs and such... ;-) ) that is found in the
intestines.
 
>I buy meat four pounds at a time from the bucher and have it wrapped in
>half pound packages then I freeze most of it (which I've been told doesn't
>affect the enzymes) and defrost it as needed.
 
You talk about meat here, hope you feed bones as well?  Or at least
supplement with bonemeal or calcium supplement?  Even though bones are
best... I get enough chickens to last a week and grind them in one go and
freeze the ground meat in portions.
 
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
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
http://www.ferretlove.freeserve.co.uk
Last update 20/12/00
[Posted in FML issue 3323]