The postulation that peas might cause uroliths, as far as I know, has
never been proven for cystine stones, but i have not read up on it in
relation calcium oxalate ones or struvite ones. Often the use of foods
w peas in them is stopped IF the ferret develops uroliths, just to be
safest.

Remember that ferrets can get several types of uroliths, and the causes
differ. With cystine ones there is too high an intake of any of four
amino acids, cystine or ornithine or lysine or arginine or some
combination of those, for the ferret's personal genetic limitations.
With struvite there is too much plant origin protein and in ferrets
they are usually seen when a cheap food has been used though some
struvite uroliths have other causes like bladder infections as the
origin.

I need to look it up to see if more is known, but recall the worry
began with a strongly asserted but highly coincidental situation in a
ferret w struvite stones, and the reason I recall that is because we
shortly afterward had one w such stones so used that caution but later
realized that it might be misplaced and in fact peas were not terribly
high in any of the COLA grouping in things I read not long afterward.

With cystine stones what has worked best for many years of health in
the ones we had was keeping total protein below 35%. We have not had
the other types of stones in any of our ferrets.

Try the PubMed site.

Saw palmetto turned out in several studies to not be highly effective
in most human males and I have never read of a ferret w adrenal disease
who actually was helped by it.

See the PubMed site.

Anyway, I am tired and fighting a virus, so go to PubMed and do some
searches, and I hope I wrote this clearly enough.

[Posted in FML 7656]