>From:    [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Shelter Donation
>I should clarify (for the benefit of anyone who may wish to adopt from
>Sandee Mozzone, that she did *not* ask for the donation.  She also knew
>that I was interested in adopting only "needy" ferrets and would love
>to care for a sick one.
 
Thank you.  It makes a really big difference that you WANTED the real
hard luck cases and weren't just stuck with one.  I do not know Sandee
Mozzone and am glad to hear that she does seem to run her shelter in
a good manner.
 
And it will be harder to 'protect' Blizzard's toy from other ferrets.
They seem to be rather mischievious. <g>
 
>From:    Lee McKee <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Ferret Output/Garden Input
>My question is, how safe is ferret poop as a fertilizer on food crops?  I
>labor under ancestral prohibitions against carnivore (dog, cat) scat in
>food gardens, presumably because of worms or other carnivoric diseases.
 
>In either case, composting should take care of the problem, yes?
 
I thought that carnivore feces was a bad fertilizer since its composed of
the 'wrong stuff'.  Similar to why ferrets can't digest vegetable protiens
as well but in reverse.  I hadn't heard about the disease part.  I'm sure
eating a cucumber directly covered in ferret poo would be a bad idea but
didn't know that the diseases or organisms would pass indirectly through the
soil into the plant then into the eater of the vegetable.  I don't think the
composting changes the makeup of the feces enough to help.  I believe I got
this information from a gardening book a couple years ago when I was trying
to find a use for the large amounts of 'output' from my four legged eating
machines.
 
bill and diane killian
zen and the art of ferrets
http://userwww.qnet.com/~killian/zen_home.htm
[Posted in FML issue 1520]