I have to say that I'm not too wild about people wording opinions or
experiences with one ferret as if they must be proof positive.
 
In relation to food we have found that our's have thrived on a number of
ferret foods (Ones used include: some trial variations of Natural Gold, 8
in 1 Ultimate, Totally Ferret, Marshalls, the original Ferret Store food,
PV, and others.) We avoid the ones with fruit pieces in them due to sugar
content and due to blockage reports.  I know there are those who hate
Marshalls (or TF, or all 8 in 1 foods, or...) for various reasons, but
I'll tell you that we have found it to be a good food, ditto a number
of other foods.  (BTW, when a ferret is very ill *if there is no health
reason which prevents the feeding of a specific food* the food the kit
had as a young kit often will be happily accepted as a comfort food.
Knowing what food some of our's had a young kits has a number of times
proven very helpful for keeping them eating during illness, that, meat
babyfood, a/d, made at home foods, etc.)
 
Before there were ferret foods our ferrets did well on good cat foods,
and before good cat foods they also had decent lifespans on crummy cats
foods -- sorry, but it just what we and others encountered and some of
those people are also FML members currently whereas some were past FML
members (whose posts can be found by using the SEND FERRET nnnn feature
even though the early ones aren't in the FML Archives).  We have had
ferrets in our family for 23 years so we predated specialized foods and
even really good cat foods locally.  Most of our ferrets in our family
live to reach their late 7th year into mid 8th year (some older, some
younger, and this has always been true here right from the beginning;
BTW that is known ages rather than estimates since I prefer to leave
estimates out of such things), and a number of our's were taken in as
kits who had suffered quite a bit before we had them.  We know there are
people who also get their ferrets from a range of sources who typically
get longer life spans, for example, MC who has had many (most?) live
into their 10th years.  So far, when he and I have compared it sounds
like the biggest consistent difference is he is able to provide more
intriguing exercise space for longer periods of time; we are in a condo
and their play space is for many hours but is shared space and some
exercise options just aren't possible in our household due to space
constraints or due to my mobility reductions.  I used to wonder if it
was the pinkie mice he gives but some of his would never eat those and
still lived as long.  We both provide a lot of complete darkness.
 
We've personally twice encountered a conflict with the higher-protein
with lower carb diet.  It hopefully will remain a rare exception.  We've
run into cystine stones in two ferrets.  Right now exactly why ferrets
get those is not known.  In dogs there usually (but not always) is a
genetic tendency for the kidneys to have trouble with processing either
cystine alone or processing the COLA group of amino acids, and it is
suspected that that genetic flaw *might* also exist in some ferrets who
don't develop this type of urinary tract stone on the foods which have
lower protein levels than the much more recent high-protein diets.  Our
two so far do fine on 35% protein but they can not handle the higher
protein levels.  We know about the meds for these stones but they have
such a potential for serious side effects that all urologists and stones
experts consulting on our two have said that diet alone should be tried
first, and if these stones reoccur we should try an even lower protein
diet before the meds if possible and if the ferrets will accept it.  We
recognize that they may come to need the meds.  One has done well with
her problem and bounced back from surgery beautifully.  The other we
almost lost to kidney problems, and he has largely bounced back but is
not the same as before.
[Posted in FML issue 4654]