A short time ago somebody posed the question about yeast as a possible
additive to a ferret's diet.  This is an attempt to answer in a limited
manner that question.
 
Here at Ferrets NorthWest FNW, yeast is an additive to all our ferret's
diet for two very important reasons: 1) vitamins and 2) flea repellent (in
association with other elements).
 
As you may or may not know, the ferrets at Ferrets NorthWest receive a
supplement of special home-made soup to their diet on alternate days.  This
soup is not a tonic or something to feed to a sick ferret to attempt to
bring the ferret back to an acceptable mode of health.  Instead this soup
is a benefit to the general health of all ferrets and, further, as a
curative has brought back to acceptable health ferrets that were received
at our shelter in the poorest state of health we've ever seen.  The
recovered ferrets are then maintained on this soup.  No ferret maintained
on this soup has ever developed ECE, the so-called and dreaded "green
slime diarrhea," which is erronously attributed to a "VIRUS" of UNKNOWN or
SCIENTIFICALLY IDENTIFIED SOURCE.
 
Until such time as the cause of ECE is proven, it would be better to
refrain from stating that its source is a "virus."  Such reference seems
to perpetuate another ignorant myth concering ferret health.
 
One of the elements in this soup is a teaspoon full of brewers powered
yeast, for the one most important reason that the brewers yeast (NOT BAKERS
YEAST) is the natural source of a range of different B vitamins as well as
vitamin G.
 
CAUTION!!!  Baker's yeast is without any nutritive value and, in fact, can
cause severe bloating in the ferret due to the production of very large
amount of carbon dioxide internal of the ferret's stomach and intestines.
The gaseous products of baker's yeast accounts for the holes in bread (the
leavening process) and gives it its porous texture.  One should be careful
to avoid baker's yeast, but instead use brewer's yeast, more properly
called Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a minute fungus.
 
The fuel value of 1 pound of brewers yeast is 506 calories, so a teaspoon
of brewers yeast would amount to about 5.27 calories.  Yet the caloric
fuel value of S. cerevisiae is not its greatest value, since the yeast is
loaded with B vitamins (water soluble and therefore not storable in the
fatty tissue of the ferret; hence the B vitamins should be furnished
daily.)
 
Some of the benefits of the B vitamins are: B2 riboflavin, lack of which
may increase ferret's sensitivity to light and may give some support to
Doctor Judith Bell's paper that speaks to the issue of adrenal gland
cancers as a consequence of overexposure to light.  Recall that the ferret
is normally a nocturnal animal and would normally spend the daylight hours
underground in its burrow/den, as does its wild cousin, the black-footed
ferret.
 
Vitamin B3 niacin, lack of which prevents efficient assimilation of food
and results in the plugging of major blood vessels from excessive
concentrations of plaque-forming cholesterol.
 
Vitamin B6 pyridoxine, lack of which prevents the efficient use of fat and
may lead to borderline anemia due to lack of red blood cells.
 
Vitamin B12 cobalamin, lack of which results in the loss of cells lining
the intestines and is doubtless one of the potential causes of ECE, the
dreaded green slime diarrhea.
 
There are other benefits of S. cerevisiae such as folic acid, pantothenic
acid and biotin.  Note that biotin is so important to the ferret's diet
that it is included in Ferretone and also in many, many commercially
prepared pet foods.
 
Lastly, and so as not to bore you, dear reader, with the benefits of folic
and pantothenic acid and biotin, let me impress upon you the amazing
property of S. cerevisiae in combination with onion and garlic properly
prepared in the home-made ferret food (soup called LUMPS).  That amazing
property, that was discovered completely by accident in the use of LUMPS,
is the repellant action of LUMPS (specifically the combination of S.
cerevisiae, garlic and onion) toward fleas.  For some unknown reason, a
flea will be repelled from a ferret that has been on a steady diet of
LUMPS, and in some cases, the flea will only suck one sip of the ferret's
blood, and apparantly, because of the bad taste of the blood (as seen from
the flea's point of view) the flea will drop off the ferret and will go in
search of another furry creature that is not consuming LUMPS.  In short,
fleas don't like to infest ferrets because of what the ferrets are eating,
and in this specific case at the ferret shelter at Ferrets NorthWest FNW,
that food is LUMPS.
 
Edward Lipinski, Ferrets NorthWest FNW
 
[Moderator's note: I feel compelled to point out that Ed has brought up
some of these suggestions before and some people believe they are not in
ferrets' best interests.  Onion and garlic can cause anemia and the
evidence that ECE caused by a virus seems pretty strong.  BIG]
[Posted in FML issue 2621]