I have not been following the dietary conversation, but only noticed it
was happening.

Hunting is something I won't address; I don't have enough data to do
so, and prefer statements based on hard studies that have gotten well
through peer review, so I noticed people discussing it but lacking time
didn't read the preferred concepts on each side, just hope someone
included links to some studies, or can use my tips in this post to find
the needed info whatever it happens to say.

So, I'll just put one note in case it is relevant: sometimes people
worry about health considerations. There are hypothesized
considerations and there are real considerations.

Some people feed natural diets raw and some feed cooked recipes. Some
feed kibble. There are a range of kibbles which have given long,
sometimes extremely long, and healthy lives already for many, many
ferrets. I have known and known of ferrets with average lives of about
8 years, those with long lives, and even some with very long lives of
14 years who absolutely thrived on kibble. (Granted, there seemed
to be proportionately more long and longer lived ones in the general
population back before the fancy lines became so common starting about
15 to 20 years ago, and that isn't just from our observations since I
have heard it from multiple vets who treated ferrets then and now.)

Hypothesized (an idea which sounds good but is not proven so may turn
out to be valid or may not): the concept that carbohydrates may lead to
increased risk of insulinoma is a hypothesis. At this point there are
not the numbers run complete with discounting other possible causes,
and there is not the physiological work done to show how it would
happen. The hypothesis was first advanced separately by two vets: Dr.
Jerry Murray who did not publish, and Dr. Mark Finkler who did but who
repeatedly pointed out that it was a hypothesis. That hypothesis was
bases on one that carbohydrates might cause diabetes in cats. In recent
years there have been multiple studies showing that it does not appear
to have any affect on diabetes in cats. Instead the factors involved
are mostly inactivity and obesity, followed by breed and gender in
some cases. Similar types of work are needed in ferrets.

Possible risk factors: The are two old studies which show pureed food
to be a cause of gum disease in ferrets. I've heard from some vets that
they don't consider the design of those studies to be thorough enough
to account for other factors.

Real risk factors: A diet which is unsuited to ferrets or is
nutritionally unbalanced is going to harm a ferret no matter what type
it is. Multiple examples can be found in the FML and FHL archives,
including many vet posts, and in vet texts (especially _Biology and
Diseases of the Ferret_) from yellow fat disease (nutritional
steatitis) to taurine deprivation (for which I carried another route
to some studies yesterday) and much more.

Ferrets on kibble do appear to have more dental wear and associated
concerns.

Although ferrets are very good at resisting certain diseases like
salmonella, those who are on raw diets do have a higher rate of several
food borne diseases, some of which can be serious if they occur and
some of which ferrets don't seem to resist well. Luckily, the rates
are low for food-borne diseases in ferrets. Use the same resources as
above.

*****It boils down to this: whatever you choose to feed, as long as you
provide a good and balanced food of any type, don't feel guilty.*****
Just know that for any diet a person should learn the known risks and
the hypothesized risks, so that the person can jump if those things
happen. Also, know the difference between which are hypotheses and
which are known because some people put a lot of emotional weight on
hypotheses and if they don't pan out the people get hurt emotionally
some times, so that just is to keep you more comfy in this life.

The FML Archives:
http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html
The FHL Archives:
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/


Help in using archives for those who want more than the instructions
right at the sites (but know some URLs HAVE changed from the older
posts):
<http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/SCRIPTS/WA-FERRET.EXE?A2=ind0604&L=FERRET-SEARCH&P=R26476>

http://ferrethealth.org/archive/SG18170

http://ferrethealth.org/archive/FHL5736

I know there is something more recent, but I can't find it.

This can be a fun way to get into vet text content without having the
texts. DO note the page numbers because the scrolls are fast.

Go to Google.com
and where it says
more
click that open and then click on
scholar
which will take you to
http://scholar.google.com/schhp?hl=en&tab=ws
then use the term combinations you choose to find studies. At times it
will link you to relevant pages in texts, but you may have more luck
on that score some times using the book option:
http://books.google.com/bkshp?hl=en&tab=wp
for example, if this link works for you when you use the ENTIRE link
you will see page 166 of _Biology and Diseases of the Ferret_ and will
be able to scroll a bit around it.
<http://books.google.com/books?id=CSFN5H8RSaEC&pg=PA167&dq=ferret+%2Bsteatitis>
and this will get you to page 341 and you can search nearby pages by
scrolling:
<http://books.google.com/books?id=CSFN5H8RSaEC&pg=PA341&dq=ferret+%2Bsalmonella+%2Braw>

Those tricks can be used with any terms you choose. I am just lacking
time and I knew it would work for the ones i chose because I kknew
they'd come up easily and get people into to right GENERAL SECTIONS
if they use the scroll arrows to get info. Steatitis is not a common
word so
ferret +steatitis
worked especially great.

I love
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez
but it does not have a very good search engine. Pick only 1, 2 or 3
relevant words and use those, then skim.

Hopefully, people will find some cool links with juried study info and
vet texts to teach themselves and others.

[Posted in FML 6231]