In Monday's FML, someone posted a note about a ferret who had kidney
problems "from eating cat food," and urged us all not to feed ferrets cat
food, implying that so-called ferret food is much better.  I apologize for
not saving the issue or the name.
 
I don't mean to criticize that writer, but I feel a bit of clarification is
in order.  Older ferrets are known to sometimes develop kidney trouble when
their diets have too much protein.  Whether the food you're feeding has a
picture of a ferret on the bag or a cat, if it has too much protein and your
ferret is over 3 or 4 years old, you're risking kidney trouble.  Thus the
recommendation that people switch from kitten versions to cat versions,
dropping protein content from around 34% to around 31%, at age 3 or so.
 
People have been feeding kibbled kitten and cat foods for years.  I don't
claim that that's the best diet, but if it regularly caused kidney disease,
someone would have noticed by now (just as they did notice about the
protein).  Foods labeled for ferrets are relatively new, and with a few
exceptions, I believe they're based on either cat food or mink diet.  Saying
that one food is better than another just because it calls itself a ferret
food or costs twice as much is bunk.  (Dog food is another question
entirely.  It's got much more vegetable matter than cat or ferret foods, and
doesn't usually have taurine, which both cats and ferrets need.  Dog food is
definitely bad for ferrets.)
 
Let's keep an open mind, and look for the actual cause of a problem --
probably the protein, in this case -- rather than blaming cat food in
general, panicking people and confusing the issue.
 
--
- Pam Greene
new! ===>   Ferret Central <http://www.ferretcentral.org/>   <=== new!
            or ftp://ftp.optics.rochester.edu/pub/pgreene/
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[Posted in FML issue 2370]