It's easy enough to find lower protein foods (1), or to find out which regular grocery foods have lower phosphorous levels (2), also to see past discussions on kidney issues (3), and to find cat foods for kidney disease (4). 1. Just read the bags. Aim for something around 35% protein levels if you are reducing phosphorous levels for kidney reasons but do NOT do it with cheap foods that have a lot of their protein from plant sources because those can cause urinary tract stones which would really complicate things though a urine acidifier could be given. Actually, running that urine pH as is planned will be helpful on the planning score. High plant protein levels increase the urine pH (too often increasing it too much), while for individuals who are genetically prone to cystine stones foods that are high in animal protein levels can cause those stones to develop by making the urine too acid for those individuals. Some merchants also make this info easily available. For example, here is one adult food: <http://www.ferretdepot.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=fd&Product_Code=2531&Category_Code=3SheppardGreeneFood> and notice that you can click on the blue lettering which mentions the ingredients list to get to http://www.ferretdepot.com/sheppardandgreeneingredientlist.html Now try the trick on other foods and see which other merchants make that info readily available. I wanted to quickly pull up one that you could see as an example of how to use that function. 2. <http://nutritiondata.self.com/foods-000121000000000000000.html> and others (Search using Google or other search engines.) Notice that it is harder to reduce phosphorous for animals which get a lot of protein so prefer the things that are further along in the charts rather than ones with higher levels in the charts. It can be done. 3. http://ferrethealth.org/archive/ is easily used. If you need supplementary instructions see the second section in http://ferrethealth.org/archive/FHL11552 4. There are multiple cat kidney diets. The chances are that your vet sells some. This lists some options: http://www.felinecrf.com/managd.htm 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/ http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/ http://www.ferretcongress.org/ http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html all ferret topics: http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html "All hail the procrastinators for they shall rule the world tomorrow." (2010, Steve Crandall) On change for its own sake: "You can go really fast if you just jump off the cliff." (2010, Steve Crandall) [Posted in FML 6931]
