Sharon, MOST kibbles don't have any wheat gluten in them according to
some vets who contacted me. A few treats do. Mostly, it is wet and
semi-soft foods. Look specifically for "wheat gluten" on the bags, at
this stage of tracking by the FDA,*not* for things that are generally
wheat and certainly *not* for gluten from other plants. It appears so
far that all of the affected stuff went to making wheat gluten.

Of course, not all wheat gluten is a problem; only wheat gluten from
that one source and that was used only for specific lot numbers. Still,
if a person has a product that is not in the recall list and wants to
be be extra careful by putting it aside for a while, there is no harm
done in most cases.

This is time to be careful about specific products but not a time to
panic. There actually, do not appear to be anywhere near as many
affected animals as one would imagine given the amount of food being
recalled, and most as anecdotal instead of proven to not be from other
cases. Most of the affected animals have been cats. Of the animals so
far proven to died of this one is a dog. So far, I have not heard of
any affected ferrets, but that certainly could potentially happen so
caution is best.

I've given multiple excellent resources for following this event and
like this one a LOT for timeliness and for including links to the
corporate sites to find affected lot numbers:

http://www.oregonvma.org/news/recalledfood.asp

Knowledge is power. Besides, it puts things into perspective, so read
in reputable resources, ignore rumors, and avoid generalizing or
panicking.

Notice, too, that aside from the foods produced at the one Menu Foods
plant, a number of the companies involved do not know if they even have
gluten batches with anything wrong with them, but are removing all
gluten from that source to be safest for the animals. That is showing
the best concern possible for animals. Would that all companies were
that careful.

You know how it is with foods: every single alternative has its up
and down sides, and some of those are intermittent ones, so just
1. stay informed from reputable sources without generalizing or
panicking,
2. always acknowledge the downsides as well as the upsides for any
diet,
3. keep postulations clear in your mind from things that have been
carefully and thoroughly studied.
4. and keep rates clear in your mind as well as potential severities of
problems with any dietary concerns of any type of diet, and then make
your own choices based upon how your experience causes you to view
those.

Sukie (not a vet)
Current FHL address:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth
Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html

[Posted in FML 5567]