If you feed a ferret "nothing but meat" the ferret could develop
"swimmer's disease" (an Australian vet text term) -- which basically
is juvenile rickets -- if the ferret was young enough and a number of
other disorders associated with poor nutrition. Meat itself is lacking
a large number of nutrients, especially many minerals.

If your ferret has a genetic tendency toward cystine urinary tract
stones then the ferret would block. Luckily, that is not terribly
common, but in the U.S. the rate seen increased when the tendency
toward higher protein diets took hold so was investigated by a
veterinary research team led by Dr. Michelle Hawkins of UC Davis (same
team leader whose study team did the MEN, Multiple Endocrinological
Neoplasia, work for ferrets and hoping for future genetic disease in
ferrets work if the funding comes through). It is a more common problem
than thought but not as common as some other uroliths.

If you decide to feed a non-kibble diet then you need to go with a
balanced homemade diet such Bob's
<http://www.trifl.org/gravy.shtml>
or possibly this one by a veterinarian who also has a doctorate in
veterinary nutrition (but contact her first to see if she thinks that
it would be applicable enough for ferrets):
<http://www.mspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=latestnews_GenericPetFoodRecipes>
 and
<http://www.petdiets.com/default.asp?Menu=Library&PageName=/Library/category.asp>

Otherwise, feed whole prey because non-meat tissues provide MANY
essential nutrients. Meat alone is worse than either whole prey or
kibble.

For you reading here are USDA lists of ferret nutrition studies:
<http://nal.usda.gov/awic/pubs/Ferrets06/feed_nutrit_metab.htm>
earlier ones:
<http://www.nal.usda.gov/awic/pubs/ferrets/feeding.htm>
still earlier:
<http://www.nal.usda.gov/awic/pubs/oldbib/ferretla.htm>

and you can look for more recent ones in
<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez>

Three which post-date the above compilations are:
<http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/137/8/1916>
(Abstract is free.)
<http://dels.nas.edu/ilar_n/ilarjournal/47_4/html/v4704Ball.shtml>
 and
>Vet Clin North Am Exot Anim Pract. 2006 May;9(2):347-65, vii.
>
>Common procedures in the pet ferret.
>
>Castanheira de Matos RE, Morrisey JK.
>Section of Wildlife and Exotic Medicine, Department of Clinical
>Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University,
>Ithaca, NY 14853-6401, USA.
also comes up as having some nutrition content.

Possibly also applying though they are other genus members are studies
you can find using
Mustela
as one of your search terms in PubMed, for example:
>Arch Anim Nutr. 2007 Jun;61(3):211-21.
>Effects of lactic acid fermentation and gamma irradiation of barley
>on antinutrient contents and nutrient digestibility in mink
>(Mustela vison) with and without dietary enzyme supplement.
>
>Skrede A, SahlstrOm S, AhlstrOm O, Connor KH, Skrede G.
>Department of Animal and Aquacultural Sciences, Norwegian
>University of Life Sciences, As, Norway.
>The experiment was conducted to study the effects of fermentation
>of barley, using two different strains of lactic acid bacteria, a
>Lactobacillus plantarum/pentosus strain isolated from spontaneously
>fermented rye sourdough (AD2) and a starch-degrading Lactobacillus
>plantarum (AM4), on contents of mixed-linked (1 --> 3) (1 --> 4)-
>beta-glucans, alpha-amylase inhibitor activity, inositol phosphates,
>and apparent digestibility of macronutrients in mink. Effects of
>fermentation were compared with effects of gamma irradiation
>(gamma-irradiation: 60Co gamma-rays at 25 kGy). The diets were fed to
>mink with and without a supplementary enzyme preparation. Both lactic
>acid fermentation and gamma-irradiation followed by soaking and
>incubation, reduced concentrations of soluble beta-glucans, phytate
>and alpha-amylase inhibitor activity. Dietary enzyme supplementation
>increased significantly digestibility of crude protein, fat, starch
>and crude carbohydrate (CHO). Fermentation of the barley increased
>digestibility of starch and CHO. Fermentation with lactic acid
>bacteria AD2 resulted in higher starch and CHO digestibility than
>strain AM4, and had greater effect than gamma-irradiation, soaking and
>incubation. The highest digestibility of starch and CHO was obtained
>after AD2 fermentation followed by enzyme supplementation. It is
>concluded that both lactic acid fermentation of barley and enzyme
>supplementation have positive nutritional implications in the mink by
>limiting the effects of antinutrients and improving digestibility and
>energy utilization.

If you can get the past issue of Ferrets Magazine with the nutrition
article by Danee DeVore it is wonderfully balanced and has a lot of
very useful veterinary comments.

Highly recommended if it wound on the DVDs (Don't have time to check
but have seen notes from it.) is the diet discussion from this Summer's
IFC conference:
<http://www.ferretcongress.org/>
though I don't see them listed there yet they did come under discussion
at the FHL and maybe at the FML (not sure) so the archives will work
for you.

There are MANY, MANY DISCUSSIONS on ferret nutrition in both archives:
http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html
and
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/

Some other useful resources (and you will find more of your own, I'm
sure):
Kibble comparison charts and homemade food:
http://members.tripod.com/~Ferret_Luv/foodchart.html
http://www.ohioferret.org/INFO/nutri.asp
http://home.att.net/%7Eferretfriendsofpgh/foodchart.htm

Bob's Gravy:
http://www.trifl.org/gravy.shtml

Professional consultation on balancing homemade diets with articles
by Dr. Rebecca Remillard, Ph.D., D.V.M., DACVN:
http://www.petdiets.com/
http://www.petdiets.com/Library/category.asp

FDA raw pet foods guidance:
http://www.fda.gov/cvm/Guidance/Guide122.pdf
http://www.fda.gov/cvm/CVM_Updates/rawdiet.htm

Increased meat digestibility from cooking:
http://exploratorium.edu/cooking/meat/INT-what-is-meat.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/tv_and_radio/fullonfood_meat.shtml
http://forums.egullet.com/index.php?showtopic=40548

so HAPPY HUNTING!

Sukie (not a vet)

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 5769]