Omega 3 Fatty Acids from fish oil (not cod liver oil) are great for
ferrets, especially for their kidneys, BUT there have been cases of
Nutritional Steatis (Yellow Fat Disease) in ferrets feed too much of
certain marine fish or too much squid. Kits, especially, are prone to
dying quickly once signs become present.
See either the FML Archives or the FHL Archives for more info and
see _Biology and Diseases of the Ferret, 2nd ed_ which has the beast
nutritional section I've seen in any vet text new or old, and which
can at times be gotten new or second hand at Amazon.
Recently a ferret food maker who I have known since before he began
designing his first ferret food told me that he wondered if those bouts
were due to spoilage, and I have read other explanations which call for
the providing of extra Vitamin E and explaining that Yellow Fat Disease
occurs due to too much polyunsaturated fat in the diet and too little
Vitamin E in the diet. The animals with it who were not beyond
treatment were given E. They actually fit together. Quoting from the
vet text mentioned above on page 166 and 167: "Polyunsaturated fats
are highly susceptible to oxidation within the food source as well
as within the host's tissue, and vitamin E is a critical nutritional
component in protecting tissue lipids from oxidative injury."
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.htmlhttp://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/http://www.ferretcongress.org/http://www.trifl.org/index.shtmlhttp://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
[Posted in FML 5889]
