I generally ignore emotional flailing posts to this list, but this time I'm
ticked off.
 
Regarding feeding mice to ferrets, Reet wrote, "This person 'spoke for
the whole list' in thier reply.  Apparently, I do not understand this
'community' of 'animal lovers', and I am degrading the list with my
disgusting talk of feeding my animal 'other animals', and that this was
a huge blow against people trying to convince people that ferrets are
domesticated."
 
Dear sir or madam who wishes to speak for the whole list--back off, buster.
You don't speak for me.
 
Problem #1--ferret nutrition...What the pluperfect heck do you think ferret
chow is made from?  Twinkies?  Ferrets are are evolved to hunt, kill, and
eat prey.  Their teeth are made for tearing flesh.  Their adorable antics
are hunting and fighting games.  As obligate carnivores, ferrets are meant
to eat primarily meat.  We feed them ferret and cat chows, all brands of
which contain a large amount of grain.  (Yes, even in top-price ferret
chow.) Ferrets do not digest grains especially well.  Ferret insulinoma is
a wretched modern phenomenon.  Some long-time ferret owners suspect, as I
do, that we wouldn't have nearly the problem with insulinoma if ferrets
were raised primarily on real meat rather than these meat-related
concoctions known as ferret and cat chow.  Personally, I wouldn't feed live
animals to ferrets (I don't see any significant gain for the ferret, and I
would hate to sacrifice mice, and rats, and most other critters), but I
would feed the ferrets (clean) dead animals.
 
Problem #2 --domestication...A bit of a logic problem here.  Animals that
eat live food aren't domesticated?  Rico, my fluffy, sweet-natured lap
kitty eats the front halves of the deer mice he stalks and kills, and
leaves the mangled corpses on my front step.  Rico is therefore not
domesticated?  Nope.  Rico could not live in the wild.  He is a domestic
cat.  Feeding live food may be upsetting , but the practice doesn't say
anything one way or the other about domestication of an animal.  Heck, my
grandmother was frequently seen to step out her back door, seize a chicken,
wring its neck, and serve it for supper.  Ed Lipinski feeds his rescued
mink squrrels that he has shot.  Bob Church is well known to seize packages
of whole chicken, fling them into his grocery cart, tote the prey to his
lair, and then grind up the birds, bones and all.  Clearly, sad to say,
Granny, Ed and Bob are all undomesticated.
 
Jacqueline
[Posted in FML issue 2754]