I have some questions concerning food that I hope someone can answer.  The
general rule seems to be ALWAYS read ingredinets (making usre that meat or
by-product is the first ingredient listed), as well as reading the
percentages of protein, fat, etc.  Now, could someone please tell me what
exactly is the difference between some of the high quality kitten foods vs.
ferret foods???  When you look at the ingredients they are pretty much the
same.  Some of the high quality kitten foods even have comparable
percentages of protein, fat, fiber etc.  so what makes up the difference??
This has always confused me.
 
Ok, take for example Totally ferret vs.  Eukanuba chicken & rice formula cat
food:
 
Ingredients for Eukanuba:  Chicken, Chicken Liver,
   Chicken by-product meal, Rice flour,
   Chicken by-products, fish meal....
 
Ingredients for Totally Ferret:  Poultry by-product meal,
   rice flour, poultry fat (chicken and turkey fat),
   preserved with natural vitamin E, whole eggs, corn
   meal...
 
Now, just looking at the ingredients first off Eukanuba would appear to be a
better choice...but Totally ferret has a little higher percentage of protein
and fat (only by a slight margine) so do you go for the one with the more
protein??  Is there something with the way foods are processed that make
them different?  And if it should be chosen by the higher protein percentage
then Marshall Farms Premium Ferret Diet has the highest protein percentage I
have seen so far (even higher than TF) So if you are going by protein
percentage then it would theoretically appear to be better yet.  So how
exactly do you choose a food??
 
Also, I hear so much about giving elderly ferrets a cat/ maintenance formula
food after the age of 4 years old because too much protein can be harmful
and cause problems in elderly ferrets.  But, how come ferret foods with even
higher percentages of protein than kitten formulas can claim to be
appropriate for the whole entire life of the ferret???  Vets could you
please comment on this one???  How much is too much protein??
 
What is the deal with fish?  I have seen posts to avoid fish in the fist 3
ingredients.  Why is this so?  I noticed that TF has herring meal and fish
oil in its ingredients (not in the first 3 of course) but I would assume
that if fish was bad it wouldn't be in there...right?  So why should fish be
avoided in the first 3 ingredients?
 
And my final question for now...what exactly is chicken by-products??  Is it
just the leftover parts of the chicken?
 
Well I guess I should stop here.  I really hope someone can answer these
questions for me.  I really want to feed what is best to my fuzzies!  :)
 
Thanks!
Deana
[Posted in FML issue 1701]