I have been reading all the posts on the discussion of a natural diet
or a kibble diet and I remembered something today that I hadn't thought
about for over 25 years... When I was pregnant with my youngest son, I
decided to breast-feed and started going to LaLeche League meetings.
This was around 1977 and the trend was towards feeding formula and
processed baby foods.  LaLeche teaches that the baby should be fed
nothing but mother's milk for the first 6 months and then gradually
introduced to table foods.  I can't tell you how much grief I went
through with the grandparents and family members insisting that I give
the baby some cereal when he was going through a growth spurt and my
body was playing catch-up to provide more milk for his needs.  However, I
stuck to my commitment and my child was raised for 6 months on nothing
but what nature intended for him - mother's milk.  After 6 months, he
was introduced to such foods as bananas, oatmeal (regular) and such and
never, never, never ate one bite of processed baby food.  His first real
illness didn't occur until after I stopped nursing him (at 1 year) and
today he is a strapping 6'3" young man.
 
I know this little story is not ferret-related, but the principle of
going back to what nature intended for my child rather than accepting
what was available on the supermarket shelves is very much synonymous
with the decision to feed a natural diet to my ferrets rather than the
processed foods that are considered the preferred dietary choice for
ferrets.  There will always be those who insist that kibble is the best
food available for a ferret and those who insist that natural prey foods
are best.  And, here is where we, the ferret lover, are going to make a
decision on what each one of us feels is best for our little ones.  I
have been feeding a natural diet for a month now and am delighted with
the results.  I still have people telling me that it is wrong, but I will
continue to do what I feel is best for my kids.
 
Even to this day, I still feel badly when I see the new mother grabbing
for the can of Similac and the Gerber baby food when she is perfectly
equipped to feed her child with what nature has provided.  And, I will
feel the same when I have others tell me that kibble is the only right
food for a ferret.
 
I am not a scientist, a nutritionist, a chemist or a biologist, but I do
have a "mommy" gene and I will continue to listen to that "mommy" voice
whenever it speaks to me.  I will never critisize anyone's decision to
feed a high-quality kibble to their ferret, but that doesn't mean that
I won't continue to advocate a natural diet as another option available
to us.
 
Phyllis
[Posted in FML issue 5211]