We feed our fuzzies a mixture of Iams Lamb & Rice Formula, Bench & Fields
Pro Cat Formula, and Excel Kitten food, with the Iams alternated with
Marshalls Ferret food.  All of these have protein % = 32+, fat=17+, etc.
etc., with poultry/meat as the first ingredient (and poultry/meat meal as
the third or fourth.) We also give them occasional pieces of strawberry or
nectarine as well as drops of Ferretone, and a very rare treat sip of orange
juice when we're drinking it around them.
 
However, we'd like to diversify the foods we feed them more --- would cooked
beef from sinewy portions be okay as a treat or maybe even supplement?  How
about the hollow round bones (cooked of course) from certain cuts of beef as
a chew toy?  I know that dry kibbles keeps their teeth from forming tartar,
but would canned cat food (mixed with a few kibbles and maybe some cooked
beef bits, kept separate from their normal kibble bowl) be an okay
supplement to their dry diet as well?  I looked at the nutritional values on
the back of one of Iam's cans and it only had 10% protein (moisture = 78%),
so I am wondering why people feed their cats primarily canned food when it
doesn't seem as nutritional as the dry food (though of course I'm no
nutritionist.) --- is it because dry food can cause urinary tract problems?
If the latter was true, wouldn't dry food also cause urinary tract problems,
etc. in ferrets as well?
 
                             Cheerios (and Apple Jacks too),
                             Anna and Martin G. Ralya
[Posted in FML issue 1535]