From Sukie:
 
>Shirley wrote:
>>Another thing that always cuts me to the quick is when folk write that
>>they started to give their ferrets Bob C's Chicken Gravy when it got
>>insulinoma.  Now it wont go back to kibble any more.  Would you go
>>back to a diet that was probably the cause of the disease in the first
>>place????
>
>This is important, Shirley: the concept that carbohydrates in the diet
>are even *a* cause or *a contributing cause* for insulinoma has NOT been
>proven.  It is a hypothesis, in fact it is based upon a group of about a
>half dozen hypotheses in a chain.
 
Sukie, this is twice as important: Ferrets that are fed a natural diet
do not get insulinoma.  I can say this with some authority because of
my dealings with hundreds of ferrets over about ten years.  I am not
prepared to wait endlessly for a study to provide results.  (In my mind,
the study currently underway does not address the real problem.)  I want
better health for ferrets and a longer life for them too; and I want it
now!
 
When we take on the care of a pet of any type, it is up to us to provide
the very best for them, even to the extent of changing some of our
habits and beliefs, no matter how ingrained.  Once we begin to change
the animal to suit our purposes, or chose to provide them only with what
is convenient to us, we need to question our reasons for wanting that
particular pet in the first place.  I, and I'm sure most folk on this
list, take the responsibility of ethical pet care very seriously.  To
feed a ferret an artificial diet, notice the health problems evolving and
not want to attempt to bring about change is unethical in my opinion.
 
I will go one step further.  Ferrets that are provided with a natural
diet do not get adrenal disease.  There is one layer of the adrenal gland
that is resposible for notifying the pancreas to produce more insulin.
Although it is not the layer that produces the sex hormones, it is not
hard to believe that adrenal disease, too, is caused by a diet of the
high carbohydrate kibble.  I think that the current trend to administer
drugs to prevent adrenal disease is simply awful when a much better
solution is available - natural diet.
 
Always for the Ferrets,
Shirley
[Posted in FML issue 5188]