Mike writes:

>The first 3 ingredients are Chicken meal, Sweet potatoes, Peas, The
>last I knew Sweet Potatoes and Peas are not meat, they are vegetables
>and ferrets can not digest vegitables.

Actually, no one knows for sure to what degree domesticated ferrets
can or can not digest vegetable matter types. Certainly, some degree
of digestion happens. They obviously must have animal tissues as their
main protein source, still.

This is a topic where just recently a lot was discovered with domestic
dogs vs. wolves. It turns out that dogs even have a good number BOTH of
genetic changes and intestinal microbiota changes compared to wolves
which allow improved utilization of plant food sources. Parts of those
are thought to be due to close association with humans (changes in the
intestinal flora) and selective pressures of living with humans for
such a long time (genetic changes). There is a hypothesis that to
varying extents -- depending on the interplay of multiple factors like
length of domestication, degree of change in diet over time (as in are
the animals still hunting regularly and were their recent ancestors,
what has been the primary diet both recently and for generations, etc),
how genetically flexible that particular species is, etc.-- that many
domesticated species may be functionally much more omnivorous than
their ancestors and that therefore making dietary suppositions based
on ancestry has some weaknesses that must be taken into account.

Sukie (not a vet) Ferrets make the world a game.

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.miamiferret.org/
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/
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)

A nation is as free as the least within it.

[Posted in FML 7869]