This website:

http://www.provet.co.uk/petfacts/healthtips/vegetarianism.htm

talks about pets and vegetarianism, and it says that ferrets are
omnivores. Below is the email I sent them and the email they sent me
in return. If you want to contact them, there's info on the webpage.

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 To whom it may concern,

I was looking at the following link -
http://www.provet.co.uk/petfacts/healthtips/vegetarianism.htm - about
pets and vegetarianism, and I noticed that ferrets are listed as
being omnivores. This is not true. Ferrets lack a cecum, so they are
anatomically unable to digest vegetable matter. They also cannot digest
fruits. Fruits and veggies have no nutritional value for ferrets, and
they get their nutrition from animal proteins and fats. Ferrets are
obligate carnivores, not omnivores.

You can read more about this at the following links:

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=11&cat=1296&articleid=573
http://www.ferret-universe.com/care/food.asp
http://www.mdferretpaws.org/care/food_treats.html
http://rawfedferrets.com/

I would appreciate it if you would change the information about ferrets
that you have on your website so that new ferret owners do not think
that feeding their ferrets fruit and veggies is correct.

Thank you for your time,
Kristen

============
The response:

Kristen,

Just to let you know that our investigations are ongoing regarding
whether ferrets are strict carnivores or ominvores. We have found
plenty of evidence that they do eat vegetable matter and that they can
utilise it. The relatively short gastrointestinal tract of the ferret
does not necessarily mean that it has to be a strict carnivore,
apparently in the wild they eat roots at night and there are also
papers looking at the metabolic pathways in ferrets and these suggest
that they have adapted metabolically to be ominvores rather than strict
carnivores. However, we are still conducting our research and I will
get back to next week as to whether we agree that the wording on our
website needs modifying.

In the meantime many thanks for conatcting us with your concerns. We
are anxious that the infromation we provide is accurate.

Mike Davies
Provet Limited

[Posted in FML 5575]