Q: "I've read about feeding meat to my ferrets, but everytime they eat it,
they have blood in their stool.  Nor the red type, but the stools are
black....what do you think about feeding meat?"
 
A: When it happens to chickens its called tar-n-feathers...
 
Happens to mine too, but nothing to worry about.  The dark stool is caused
by the presence of oxidized iron, and the source of the iron is the
myoglobin in the meat.  Myoglobin is the compound in muscle which makes it
work, and muscles are rich storehouses of iron.
 
Blood can also cause the problem; the way you can tell if the blood is
coming from way-up comparied to way-down the gut is the darkness of the
stool--the darker the poo the higher the bleeding.  If you are not sure if
the darkness is caused by blood, place a poopie on a piece of clean white
paper and add a few drops of water or alcohol.  A stain should spread from
the poopie, and if there is a lot of blood in the stain, then the outer part
of the stain "ring" should be quite reddish or rusty.  Otherwise, the stain
will be light yellow to orange in color.  The "tarriness" in some
descriptions means lots of blood is entering the bowel rather than just a
little, which give the critters the runs.  Oh yeah, tarry poo stinks to high
heaven; once smelled, you will never forget it.
 
Mammals fed a high-meat diet almost always have dark or blackish scat.
Ferrets fed an all-meat diet, like my Foster, invariably have well-formed,
blackish stools with a left-handed twist, between 2-4 inches long.  These
stools have almost NO odor, and they do not mush into the carpet--that is,
they pick up clean.
 
Foster is my 12-year-old ferret (13 this spring); a late neuter I was
blessed enough to adopt from Dr. Bobbie McCanse in KC.  He has nasty
arthritis and has just gone blind (90% or more) in both eyes.  But, he
weighs 4.2 lbs (converted from metric), is very energetic, plays like a kit
with me (although kits tick him off), is lean and tough and less than 15%
body fat.  His coat is fantastic, and his activity levels are normal.
 
I feed Foster an all-meat and bone diet. On odd days, he gets two mice
(one in the morning, one in the afternoon) and he eats them hair, hide,
and toenails (they are already dispatched and purchased from a reptile
supply house--check out herp mags-- and I inject them with vitamins before
feeding them to him). On even days, he gets either chicken, fish (usually
salmon), or beef, steamed to kill bacteria. Twice a week, he is given
whole cream to lap up (cream is fat-rich and lactose poor, so even sick
ferrets tolarate it well. I wean my duck-soup babies off duck-soup using
whole cream, and all my ferrets drink it twice a week rather than getting
raisins. WARNING: It can make the floor slick as goose scat when first
given to them, but they soon adjust and then its all curds and whey.) At
all times he is allowed access to kibbled food, but he eats less than a
tablespoon in a week (yes, as a mater of fact, I *DO* weigh their food).
He is also allowed access to chicken bones, mostly the back and pelvic
bones (synsacrum), but he also gets wing and leg bones as well.  And he
loves them; he even barks at the other ferrets if they try to sneak in and
steal a bone from him.
 
I started this diet last year after I had reported that I didn't think he
would be around much longer.  I've changed my mind.  He has changed so much
in the last month that I will soon be training *ALL* my ferrets to a similar
diet.  Four major changes I've noticed.  1) His pot-belly is gone.  He is
not skinny, he just no longer has thick fat on his lower belly.  2) He is
more alert and active, and is much more interested in eating.  He *knows*
the days he will be getting the mice, and he follows me from room to room
just in case he might miss his chance.  He is not hungry.  He could eat from
the food dish; he just loves the mice.  3) His arthritis is better.  Now,
nothing will change those mechanical problems that exist in his joints, but
the pain appears less (I've stopped giving him aspirin) and the joints
function better.  4) He no longer eats any time, but usually only when I
feed him.  All other times, even though food is available, he ignores it or
just eats a few pieces.  He is much more active, but I'm not sure he just
isn't looking for more mice.  Oh, yeah.  He has almost kicked the raisin
habit; I think he eats maybe 2 or 3 (eq) a week.  But cook chicken in the
kitchen, and he is a fixture at the door.
 
He is happier, more fit, and is eating much less.  Now, if anyone likes this
idea, note I said whole mouse carcasses.  Muscle lacks fat and calcium, so
animals fed only muscle can develop rickets and/or ketone-acidosis (and even
be malnurished).  You need fat with the meat, so when I give him beef,
chicken or fish, I leave the fat on with it.  He eats both, and he gets
plenty of iron and calcium from the bones I give him, as well as from the
mice.
 
Not all ferrets recognize meat as food, especially those who have only eaten
kibbled food for much of their lives.  I mash some of the meat into a paste
and rub it on their gums.  I do this daily, and by the end of the week, they
are licking it from my fingers.  I make the pieces bigger and bigger, and
soon they are eating entire chunks.  Sometimes, no matter how hard you try,
they turn their noses up at it.  For some reason, most of mine detest pork,
but they *ALL* adore spam.  Go figure...
 
So, can you figger what I think of meat in the diet?
 
Bob C and 20 MO Meataholics
[Posted in FML issue 2207]