Q: But Whhhyyyyy do they like fruit?
 
A: So much to do and so little whine.
 
My cat (Bastet) LOVES grass, berries, and dried pineapple.  She will kill
for dried pineapple.  Of course there is a lot of variation in individual
animals, some after the fruits and nuts more than others.  In my business of
17, at least five ferts like fruit little or not at all.
 
The most probable reason is very hard to explain in a few lines, but relates
to why plants make sweet fruits at all, which is to insure something will
come by and eat the stuff, then spread the seeds somewhere else in a nice
little dollap of fertilizer.  This is a type of mechanism often refered too
as "coevolution;" where two different groups evolve some type of
interrelatedness to each other.  In this case, the plants want to disperse
seeds, and the carnivores (and other animals) want the free and concentrated
sugars to build fat to make it through the winter.  And berries can provide
enough sugar (converted to fat) to fuel a bear through a northern winter.
 
I grew up in the California foothills, and you could tell what time of year
it was by the number of manzanita berries in coyote scat.  Now, these
berries were used by the local Native Americans to relieve constipation, so
you can imagine the effect they have on the coyote.  Still, they eat the
stuff so much their scat looks like cranberry salsa.  It wouldn't make sense
to eat this if they weren't getting anything good from it, and they are;
sugar.  Also, consider (depending on the area) two types of fruits, those
that come out early (late spring) and those that come out late (Early fall).
Both are very important to carnivore for the simple reason that in the
spring, almost everyone is nutritionally challenged, just coming off a
winter, and sugars get you through the bad times.  In the fall, the fruits
are perfect for building fat reserves to make it through the next winter.
Most areas that experience snowfall has both types of fruiting plants, with
the late fruiters more common.
 
There is another aspect to think about, and this addresses the citric nature
of some fruits.  Now all you scurvy rats know the importance of vitamin C in
the diet, right?  (arrrh!) Besides hair and tooth loss, vitamin C is very
important to the absorbion of iron and calcium.  It helps increase the
efficiency of the metabolism of glucose to make ATP, acts somewhat like an
antioxidant, and stains your urine a really cool orange color.  When I
adopted Crystal, I was perplexed by her hair loss.  Her skin was dry and the
hair brittle, and she was missing a few of her front teeth (incisors).
After an ovarian tumor was removed, I expected things to clear up, but they
actually became worse.  About this time I was doing research for a paper (in
press!!) on within-bone nutrients found in pemmican.  I was reading about
vitamin C as part of the research, and recognized some of the symptoms of
not having enough "C" in your diet.
 
I started to give Crystal vitamin C, and in a few weeks, her symptoms
started clearing up.  Gone now.  Now, I haven't mentioned this before,
simply because it was too near to surgery for me to know if the vitamin
suppliment was the factor causing the change, or the surgery.  In any case,
I decided to start giving the carpet monkeys a daily dose of the stuff.  I
use those water dishes that refill the bowl using a recycled 2-liter soda
bottle, and I have started droping 2 vitamin C capsules into the water each
time I refill it.
 
Can the stuff hurt your ferret?  Not a chance; what it doesn't use is simply
voided.  Vitamin C is a water soluble substance, and excess amounts are
eliminated in the urine.  It does have a side benefit (other than cool
orange pee) in that it causes the urine to become slightly acidic, which
makes it very helpful with animals that tend to form stones.  Bastet also
gets the treatment, and has stopped making stones entirely.  BTW, those of
you who do form kidney or bladder stones probably drink lots of cranberry
juice and lemonade.  Same principle.  The acids keep the solids from
precipitating out, forming the stones.  I personally learned my lesson in
this regard when bicycling across Anza-Boreggo Desert, near the Salton Sea
on a day topping 115 F.  I got three kidney stones that day, which felt like
I was passing an elephant out my rear.  I dumped the gatoraid, and now drink
watered down cranberry juice and lemonade, and the problem has not recurred.
Which is good, because the next time I beg someone to shoot me, they just
might.
 
Regardless of the benefits, which only a few of the more intelligent ferrets
understand (those that have passed biochemistry), the only probable reasons
ferrets like fruits and sugars is because they have an instinct to do so, or
simply because they like the taste.  I tend to think the instinct drives the
desire, but the sweet taste powers the drive.  Oooooo, could evolution have
caused an increase in fitness for those animals that simply liked sweets?
Pass the soda and raisinettes, twinkie; I'm going to single-handedly shift
gene-frequencies in my gene pool!
 
Bob C and the 17 MO Sweeties.
[Posted in FML issue 1911]