Reference of the day:
 
Patricia P. Scott
"The special features of nutrition of cats, with observations on wild
Felidae nutrition in the London Zoo." 1968 Symposia of the Zoological
Society of London, No.  21, "Comparative Nutrition of Wild Animals," edited
by M.  A.  Crawford, published by the Zoological Society of London.
 
Ok, this is the second paper I've offered that isn't really about ferrets;
in this case, it is primarily concerned with wild cats, such as lions and
tigers.  Still, I fell the use is permitted because we ready use cat foods
to feed our beasties, and because both cats and ferrets are extreme
carnivores, with ferrets probably being the more carnivorous of the two.  So
even though the paper is primarily comcerned with cats, the lessons can
easily be applied to ferrets (To save space and extreme boredom, I'm not
going to argue the relationship is homologous rather than analogous one, but
it is, so the comparison is very powerful).
 
The paper has several goals, the most obvious is the communication of the
basic nutritional requirements of cats [read extreme carnivores].  Both the
importance and dangers of feeding an all-meat diet are explained.  For
example, an all-meat diet lacks the nutrients found in the other organs of
the body, consumed by the predator, including internal organs and skeletal
tissues.  The all-meat diet therefore lacks vitamins and minerals neccessary
for the health and well being of the carnivore.
 
Of particular interest is the discussion of vitamins and calcium in the
diet.  Supporting evidence includes X-rays of different individuals fed
diets that vary in calcium content.  (For those of you that remember, I once
pointed out my ferrets have very dense bone, a suprise to my vet, which I
attribute to allowing them to eat cooked bone.  The X-rays on p.  29 of the
paper illustrates the difference between the bones of my ferrets and most
others.)
 
For those of you wanting to know more of the basic nutritional requirements
of carnivores, this is a good start.  It is not very technical, and offers
evidence for most of the statements.  Although dated somewhat, the basic
generalizations are still true.  Granted the paper does not address ferrets,
and undoubtably there are differences, but the basic background is the same
and if anything, the ferret has even more stringent requirements.  At a
later date, I will offer a reference specific to ferrets, but expect a more
difficult read.
 
Mo' Bob and the 18 Bone Busting Beauties (In memory of Gus)
[Posted in FML issue 1735]