Here's some information on the Marshall Farms I had promised. Joan talked
to them this afternoon on a number of issues.
 
Did Marshall Farms loose 40% of their ferrets this winter?
 
They did NOT loose 40% of their ferrets this winter to a freeze.  What
happened is that they built a new building for their breeding stock.
Jill's go into heat in the spring.  This is tied to the number of
daylight hours.  With artificial light, they can adjust the "daylight"
hours to bring them into heat whenever.  The electrician made a mistake
in setting up the timer and the light-ON period was three hours short.
It was a significant time before they caught the mistake.  As a result
they lost about 33% of the productive breeding times this cycle.  There
was no loss of ferrets, just fewer new ones.
 
New food formulated specifically for ferrets.
 
Yes, it is now out.  In  New England the distributor is Bil-Jac of N.E.
Their number is 800-321-1002.  The food is supposed to be very high in
protein (38%) and high in fat (18%) with no color or flavor additives,
and most interesting to me "formulated to be easily digested by a
ferret's demanding digestive system" - (works in their 3 hour digestive
system).  So there should be good utilization of what goes in and less
output.  I understand that they've been working for years on this and
have been feeding their own stock this food.  The first ingredient on the
list is chicken byproducts.  I can't quite make out the rest from the
picture of the food bag on their brochure.
 
Sorry, I don't have numbers for the other areas of the country.
 
Dick B.
 
[Posted in FML issue 0771]