Q: "If you have been feeding a pelleted dry diet for quite some time,
say enough time to have done minor to serious damage, or if the ferrets
teeth have been worn down etc, is it dangerous to start feeding food
that contains bone?  Will they still be able to effectively chew/cut the
meat and bones, and can they do it SAFELY now that the teeth have been
damaged?  What if the ferret has a loose tooth or a weak tooth etc should
it be extracted before starting to feed whole bones or food that contains
bones?"
 
A: This is perhaps one of the finest questions I have ever been asked;
it is extremely thoughtful and pertinent to the question.  Kudos to the
questioner!
 
Regardless how dull or flattened the carnassials become, they will ALWAYS
slide past each other in a scissors-like action.  While this may make
cutting fibrous tissue or slicing bone difficult (the ferret may chew for
some time before the cutting is accomplished), I am not sure the teeth
are necessarily placed at risk from eating bone anymore than they would
be for eating kibble.
 
Here is one way to look at the question.  Suppose the tooth is so damaged
(worn down) from eating kibble that there is serious risk of fracture or
loss from eating a bone.  Because of the risk, you decide NOT to feed
bone, and just keep the ferret on kibble.  Is the tooth at ANY less risk
of fracture or loss?  Not at all!  If the tooth is so damaged that it is
at risk from eating bone, then it is STILL at risk from eating kibble.
One food or another, a damaged tooth is a problem that requires the
attention of a veterinarian.  A vet should be able to determine if a
tooth needs to be removed.  IF a tooth has to be extracted, it would
have to be pulled regardless of the diet.
 
The biomechanics of carnassial tooth action is a bit different for
cutting bone and tissue compared to cutting kibble.  When the jaw
muscles contract, moving one carnassial past the other, all the force is
concentrated at the two opposing tooth edges.  Because the opposing tooth
edges represent a very tiny surface area, the force at those points is
spectacular.  As the teeth slice through the bone and tissue, they glance
off each other.  Instead of wearing each other down rapidly, as what
happens when metal is dragged against metal, because they are lubricated
with prey fat and saliva, the friction is rather low.  Rather than
dulling each other, the glancing blow polishes scratches and keeps the
cutting edges sharp and smooth.
 
Kibble is quite different.  Because kibble is hard, rather than pliable
like muscle tissue, it not only wears against the cutting surfaces of the
teeth, but also the crown as a whole, placing all jaw force over a wider
area of the tooth.  Also, kibble is NOT moist, and does not contain fatty
tissue, so it is not self-lubricating as with prey parts, so the teeth,
rather than polishing each other, now grinds the other down.  It is like
polishing a knife blade on a dry whetstone.  Saliva is of little initial
help because the kibble is so hard there is not enough time for the
saliva to soften the food.  Bone is also hard, but it is NOT encountered
with EVERY single bite like when eating kibble.  Besides, bone is NOT as
hard as tooth enamel, and trabecular (spongy) bone acts like a polishing
agent to help smooth the defects in the tooth.
 
There is NO doubt kibble causes damage to ferret teeth in excess of what
would be expected in a "natural" polecat diet.  This raises the question:
if the selling point of kibble is sound nutrition (ignoring the issue of
excess carbohydrates), then WHY don't professional nutritionists show
concern over oral health, addressing THAT problem with their product?  If
a "professional nutritionist' wants to earn MY respect, they would be
concerned with the holistic health of the ferret, NOT just in meeting
their nutritional needs.
 
Bob C
[Posted in FML issue 4168]