>Actually, if you'll look at the numbers you posted for Eukanuba, you'll see
>that Totally Ferret *is* slightly better:
 
I'd like to put in my $.02.  I am not a nutritionist but I do have some
biochemical and biological background.
 
It seems in general people are only paying attention to three numbers; fat,
protein, carbs.  Most high grade cat foods (i use purina kitten chow myself)
are rather similiar to ferret foods.  However I did notice that the cat food
usually does not have many vitamins and minerals that ferret foods have.  I
used the Kaytee ferret food for comparision.  Of course my ferrets won't
touch it, and perfer the cat food.  I give them a suppliment called
Ferretone Skin and Coat Ferret Food Suppliment, this is a lipid based
suppliment that includes vitamin A, D3, and E, all of which are hydrophobic
(lipid based) in nature.  This should help because it gives ferrets
essential fatty acids that they need for cellular processes, which is
particularly manifest in the GI tract, hair and skin, where high cell
turnover is common.  In other words, this gives X, cells need X, the places
that need most cells and thus X are the skin, hair, and GI tract lining.
 
So one thing is just don't look at percentages, look at the vitamins and
minerals and lipid suppliments, and compare them.  You will probably find
that Totally Ferret has way more vitamins and minerals.  Another thing, the
nutritional requirements are different.  We all know that ferrets are not
cats.  Ferret food is designed with ferret nutrition in mind.  HOw did they
get this?  I don't know, good science I hope.  TF and others should be more
beneficial to ferrets because it gives them what they need most, in the
form of vitamins and minerals.  All animals need lipids and protein and
sugar, but vitamins and minerals, each is a bit different.
 
Lastly about this holisitic stuff.  I will not knock something I havn't
tried.  Let me tell you: heat inactivated (whatever) has no in vivo effect,
it is for nutrition only.  Powdered enzymes, what enzymes?  There is no way
an enzyme in this form can be put to work in a cell; it has to get by the GI
tract and it won't withstand the digestive processes.  So this is snakeoil.
Same with DNA and RNA.  Doesn't do any good, it is broken down into
nucleotide precursors and then put to work.  What I don't know is the effect
of endosymbiotic microorganisms on ferrets.  Microorganisms in humans do
quite a number of useful things which we can't do ourselves.  The problem is
how to get them there and are they safe?  Microorganisms proliferate like
mad, what if they decide to stop being endosymbiotic and start being
parasitic?  I would tend to say that if a endosymbiotic microorganism is
responsible for the cluster of ECE free cases, and if it is preexisting in
these ferrets, then there is a connection.  The most obvious approach would
be to test this hypothesis, and if true and if found, culture the
microorganism and distrubute as a drug.
 
Now how would you test it?  Well, normally you challenge it with ECE and see
if it survives.  Do you want to do that with your fuzzies?  Perhaps not.  It
is, I think, the only way however.
 
Again just my $.02.  Maybe someday we will have a cure for ECE.
 
-Rob
 
(University of Texas Health Science Center Houston)
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       Robert Dejournett [log in to unmask]  [log in to unmask]
         www.rtd.com/~hermes   last update: 5/4/97   ICQ: 607091
[Posted in FML issue 2120]