Q: "I have three ferret books and two say to never feed bone to ferrets.
   One doesn't mention it.  Why do you feed bone to your ferrets?"
 
A: 'Cause I'm bone to be wild. Bone there, eschewed that.
 
This is like the issue of cattle or horses breaking thier legs in prairie
dog holes.  Everyone "knows" of someone else who had livestock break their
legs in a hole, but its never actually happened to them.  For at least two
years I have been asking for people to tell me if *they* lost a ferret to a
bone and have only recieved a single reply, and in that case it was obvious
the vet had mislead the person as to the cause of death.  The person was
told a sliver of bone had "sliced" portions of the esophagus, stomach and
intestine.  I've been handling broken bone for 8 years, and while it can
sure as heck poke you, and you can sharpen the edge to cut, it doesn't break
that way.  Once it hit the stomach and those powerful acids did their work,
the bone edges would have rounded and definately would not have cut
anything.  BTW, stomach acid is HCl and can disolve iron or bone, it doesn't
care which.
 
The danger in eating bone is that it may turn sideways and get trapped in
the esophagus, choking the ferret, or someplace in the bowel, causing a
blockage.  In the later case, I've never heard of it nor is anything listed
in the literature.  The reason is because whatever a carnivore (including
ferrets) can swallow, it can normally pass; that is, excluding those
manufactured items (like foam rubber or hard plastic) that do not react much
to stomach acids and intestinal enzymes.  Those items retain their hard and
sharp edges, and will often get hung up somewhere.
 
As for the former worry, sometimes a ferret will choke on bone; I know of at
least a half-dozen reputable instances.  So what?  When did choking on
something start equating with death?  I know, from the FML alone, of dozens
of instances of ferrets choking on kibble.  Hell, I have choked at least a
dozen times on my own saliva (Which is why I won't eat at Hooters.)  Neither
the ferrets nor I am dead yet.  Here is a shocker; humans choke to death all
the time, but very few other animals do.  Know why?  The construction of our
throat is different, which allows us to speak, but leaves our throats
smaller than our mouths and allows us to attempt to swallow items that won't
go down.  Not so in carnivores.  If they can get it past their teeth, it can
usually make the trip to the belly.  Also, humans cannot breathe when they
swallow.  Oh you can try it, but you won't like how your body gets even.
Many mammals (and human babies) can swallow and breathe at the same, which
means if a human gets something caught in its throat, they can suffocate.
But carnivores throats are large, and rarely does anything get caught in it,
so they can still breathe.  If something does gets caught, it is usually in
the esophagus, and most carnivores just gag until it comes up, and darn if
they don't try it again.  Like a ferret fight, it sounds terminal, looks
horrible, but generally amounts to next to nothing.
 
A problem that does occur is when dogs eat tiny bones, such as from fish or
small poultry.  In this case, they usually bolt the food, or the bone has
nothing around them (flesh) to keep them from poking into the esophagus.
Most of the objections I have heard have compared ferrets to dogs, and the
assumption is made that one is like the other.  First, ferrets rarely bolt
food; compared to dogs they eat like Miss Manners taught them to use 3
different forks.  Dogs bolt food because they evolved from wolves, and
bolting food was the only way you could be sure to have enough when other
mouths were also gobbling it up.  Also, bolting down food allows to you
carry the chunks back to momma and the babies.  Ferrets are not dogs; their
ancestors evolved eating animals with teeny tiny bones, and they never had
to worry about a group of polecats next to them grabbing the booty before
they could wolf it down.  Plus, they carry whole carcasses back to the
kits, who can dismember it quite well, thank you (Polecat eyes might still
be sealed at 4 weeks, but they have teeth that can rip the skin off your
finger).  Ferrets may be domesticated, but they still have the body
construction and ability to consume, swallow and eliminate bone safely and
effectively.  I challenge *ANYONE* to prove that wrong.
 
I feed my ferrets bone every other day (on average).  If they get a thigh
bone (femur), they eat off the ends and leave the hard middle.  If I give
them a chicken back (the synsacrum) they eat it all.  Usually I give them
cooked poultry bone, but they go nuts over BBQ beef ribs.  The bone they
*LOVE* the best is the head and fins from trout.  They will fight over the
head!  Beef rib bone is too hard for them to get much down except the
softened ends, but the act of chewing reduces plaque, helps smooth rough
surfaces on the tooth (SEM pictures prove hard bone *polishes* the tooth,
and several vet dentists think helps prevent tooth decay), and gives
exercise to the jaw muscles.
 
Bone is the perfect nutrient to maintain healthy bones and almost eliminates
the problem of osteoporosis.  No kibble or vitamin supplement is better.  I
attribute the cleaniness of my ferret's teeth (*NO* plaque!  *NO* gum
disease!  Bone is nature's dental floss for carnivores), their strong and
dense bones, and their general overall vigor to bone in their diet.  I wish
you could pick Foster up.  He is 13 years old, and solid as a rock.  He
lacks the dip in the head where the jaw muscles have atrophied that is so
common in neutered ferrets.  He is old and suffers from cataracts and
arthritis, but he is more of a ferret than half I've ever seen.  While I am
not suggesting bone is the reason he has lived so long, I *AM* suggesting
the bone in his diet is part of the reason he is so healthy and vigorous.
 
People complain about the CaCa Flushing Gestapo spreading non-truths, but
this is no different.  If anyone wants to put in their book that bone is
bad for ferrets, and doesn't offer reputable evidence, they are guilty of
deceit.  While some may argue that my viewpoint that bone is good to eat is
also an opinion, they ignore the millions of years of carnivore evolution,
and the thousands of years of ferret domestication where bone was an
important aspect of nutrition, and bone chewing an important ferret
pasttime.  At least my opinion is backed up with bone-hard facts.
 
Bob C and 19 MO Bonehead Furbutts with Clean Teeth
[Posted in FML issue 2245]