"Love them little mousies,
Mousies what I love to eat.
Bite they tiny heads off,
Nibble on they tiny feet."
 
B. Kilban
 
OK, now that I have that out of my system. ;-)
 
I fully and absolutely understand the arguments being made about ferrets
being carnivores.  I also fully realize that at one time, live prey was
what they ate.  BUT how many carnivores have been domesticated and then
constantly and only fed the same live food as they preyed on as wild
animals?
 
I just don't buy the argument that live food is better for ferrets because
it is more natural.  If the ferret has been domesticated for a couple of
thousand years, can we reasonably assume that over that period of time it
still retained its wild diet for the vast majority of the time?
Domestication, by its very nature also changes diet.
 
My point it this.  Some exotic animals kept as pets HAVE to be fed live
food, or whole food (baby chicks for owls, various rodents for snakes).
I don't feel however, ferrets fall into this category.  They can thrive
on kibble diets, especially when supplemented with a variety of foods
including cooked meats.  As someone said, you can always blanch the meat
(boil for a short period of time) to get rid of diseases on the surface
of the meat.
 
I just don't see the necessity in feeding live prey to animals that are
terribly domesticated and may not even recognize it as such (their
predatory instincts long gone, even cats do not necessarily mouse).  I have
long thought about this, due to ethics of modern day slaughter houses and a
leaning towards vegetarianism.
 
If someone wishes to feed his ferrets mice, fine.  Let him.  However, I
cannot help but wonder if this is more of a passing fad than reasonable
science.  I am not going to have a fit if I know anyone who does this, fine
with me.  I am not going to though, I don't see the need and have not been
convinced it is a better alternative than other fresh foods available.
 
One small note on the Egyptian ferret argument.  The most convincing thing
to me *against* ferrets in Egypt was a friend of mine in Houston.  Rabia is
a Berber from Algeria and had absolutely no clue as to what my ferrets were
when he first saw them, and I answered lots of questions for him on this,
since some folks were saying (at the time) that ferrets existed there.
This man was very well educated and traveled and hadn't a clue.  To me that
shows there ain't no stinking ferrets there.  hehe.
 
Maggie and her rather stinking fats boy, along with the Mob
"the moment I let go it was the moment
I got more than I could handle
the moment I jumped off of it
was the moment I touched down." A. Morissette
[Posted in FML issue 2544]