There were two comments in particular in the last FML which I would like to
address.  The first was from an anonymous poster who was discussing the
merits of ferret food as opposed to cat food.  I would like to say that the
single most important factor in choosing a food for the animals is not
whether the bag says "Cat food" or "Ferret food".  There are really bad cat
foods on the market which do not meet the nutritional needs of a CAT, much
less those of a ferret.  There are also REALLY BAD ferret foods on the
market.  I'm sure no one will argue with me on that score.  However, the
best way to determine which foods are GOOD is to read the nutritional
analysis on the back.  A ferret needs at least 36% protein in a food.  This
protein should be from chicken meat or chicken meal, not fish, which many
ferret products contain, as it is a cheap way to boost the protein count.  A
ferret also needs at least 22% fat.  And a food should contain no more than
2% fiber, as this simply runs through the digestive system unscathed,
reducing the efficiency of the food and increasing the stool volume.  There
are many ferret foods which meet these requirements.  There are also a
certain number of cat foods which meet these requirements.  The bottom line
is that it really doesn't matter that a cat has a longer period of time to
digest its food before it is expelled than a ferret does; as long as a food
contains high quality poultry, high quality carbohydrates such as rice and
high quality animal fat, it will be digested in the time it takes to pass
through a ferret's little system.  Cat foods are not DESIGNED to take longer
to digest.  However, cheap ingredients found in some cat foods DO take
longer, making them unfit for ferrets.  The thrust of my argument is that if
we keep in mind the proportions of nutrients which a ferret needs and make
sure we check both the percentages on the package and the list of
ingredients to see where those percentages come from, a cat food can be as
wonderful for the ferret as a ferret food.  It just takes a little more
effort to read nutritional facts than it does to read the "cat" or "ferret"
label (which is often not a good indicator of nutritional value, either) on
the front of the package.
 
My second comment is in reference to a post which commented on the longevity
of ferrets.  The poster said that she had owned ferrets for 10+ years and
that her first had lived to 11, and none past 8 after that.  She drew the
conclusion that ferret longivity is on its way down.  I would propose that
we look at this in a bit of a different light.  Instead of assuming that
because the first ferret lived to 11, that must be the norm and the "none
past 8" must indicate decline, what if we say that the 11 year ferret was an
anomoly, and that the normal lifespan is around 8 years?  Certainly if
someone has owned as many ferrets as the poster has, and only one has ever
lived past 8, it must be THAT ONE which was the oddity, rather than the norm
from which we are now deviating.
 
Kirstin Hendrickson
[Posted in FML issue 1699]