Hello folks:

Living in Costa Rica it is very difficult to get quality food for my
three ferrets. When they arrived in mid July I was using IAMS kitten
food, but constantly searching for a better option. My favorite choice
has always been Innova EVO for ferrets, but as ferrets are an extremely
exotic pet in Costa Rica, no company is willing to go through all of
the legal work to get the permits etc . . .to import it. Thinking I
might have better luck with Innova EVO for cats, I tried again, but
still struck out. Finally, I decided to move on to Innova EVO for dogs.
Again, it initially looked like I was going to strike out, but just
last week I found an alternative supplier which stocks Innova EVO small
bites for dogs.

So, two days ago I started mixing the Innova EVO with the IAMS kitten,
and they seem to be taking to it alright. To sort of further fool them,
I mixed some 8 in 1 Ferretvite into it as well, as I have frequently
done that in the past with the IAMS. (In case you are wondering how I
am able to buy Ferretvite, it is because I bought and carried eight
tubes with me when I was in the USA in August). So my initial action
was simply to be very happy, because I was able to find a high quality
kibble with no grains. Now however I am starting to worry. Is there
enough Taurine in Innova EVO for dog to completely switch them over
or should I still be mixing with a kitten food. It IS possible to buy
Innova cat/kitten kibble here, which I was thinking might be a better
option than the IAMS if I still need to mix in some cat food.

I need to stress that there is NO regular supply of ferret food in
Costa Rica, be it low or high quality. So using a made for ferret
kibble is not an option, and given that most of them are pretty low
quality anyways I would probably still prefer the Innova EVO dog.

If I were at home all day, or even more, I WOULD go through the hassle
of trying to switch them to a raw diet. However, for various reasons,
this is simply not a reasonable option for me. The biggest issue here
is that they just don«t seem at all interested in it, so it would mean
leaving raw meat sitting out all day with the HOPE that they would
finally get desperate enough to eat it. Given that where I live daily
average temperatures are right at about 72 degrees, I prefer to not
chance the other problems that could come from doing this. (In case you
are concerned, the temperature at my altitude even on the hottest days
never goes above 82 degrees and then only for about an hour maximum a
day).

I know that many shelters use INNOVA EVO dog food, but I was wondering
how essential the mixing was considered to be. If the purpose is just
to insure that in an emergency they will eat something else, then I
would put a tiny amount of IAMS and INNOVA cat in (say 1/5 of the
mixture). But if the issue is one of nutritional deficiency, I might
need more guidelines.

Sorry for being so long winded, but I really am concerned about this
and hope that you can help me with some quality advice.

Thanks,
Jay Terwilliger

[Posted in FML 6480]