Q: "...What did they feed ferrets raised on ferrets farms before kibble?"
 
A: I'm pretty sure it was those annoying small, fluffy, nipping, always
   barking dogs, especially those wearing cute clothing.
 
There are three basic sources of information regarding early ferret
diets; "common knowledge," and indirect historical and direct historical
information.  "Common knowledge" is a jumble of "they saids" and cultural
beliefs on the subject.  It is not to be trusted, although it can be used
to confirm public awareness on specific subjects.  For example, "common
knowledge" suggests ferrets rip the faces off babies prior to killing and
consuming them, yet only two infants have ever died of ferret attacks and
neither incident excluded the possibility that dogs were involved.  The
"common knowledge" regarding ferret diets was that ferrets thrived upon
milky sops; that is, cooked grains and milk.  The grains could be in the
form of bread, or they could be cooked cereals, like porridge.  This
"common knowledge" was widespread, especially in Britain where it was
considered a common food of choice for ferrets, especially for those
owned by members of the lower economic classes.
 
Indirect historical information is that which is extrapolated from sources
which do not directly address the issue.  One such method is to excavate
a ferret farm and look to see if you can find physical evidence of ferret
diet, such as bones or the like.  However, just because you find a bone, it
doesn't mean the ferrets ate the meat.  This is circumstantial evidence at
best.  Another method is to carefully read the older literature, paying
special attention to the advertisements.  For example, in a turn of the
century Farmer's Journal, I found an ad for a ferret farm which said,
"Old Horses!  We use them as feed for the Ferrets!"  Since the ad could
be misleading and the horses used for glue or to feed other animals, it is
not direct historical evidence.  In other words, just because someone SAYS
something is true, it doesn't mean it is so.  The farmer might have wanted
to feed dead horses to dogs but wanted to devalue the meat to buy it
cheaper.  It is good evidence, but it is not a direct link.
 
Direct historical information are recipes, feeding logs, books which
discuss diet, that sort of thing.  Published accounts of diet are pretty
good evidence that such a diet was being consumed.  For example, suppose
someone a thousand years in the future saw my Chicken Gravy recipe.  The
recipe alone is good evidence we fed chicken to ferrets, but even stronger
would be the descriptions of how to make and modify it, and its benefits.
The more people who mention it, the better the chance of it actually being
used as stated.  Of course, the BEST evidence comes straight from the
ferret.  You can either look at the coprolites (old feces) and test them
for DNA, immunoproteins, fur, bones, etc., OR, you can test the ferret
remains for specific isotopes which would prove which type of diet was fed
to them.  Bones don't lie.
 
For our purposes, old advertisements and ferret books are probably good
enough to figure out ferret diets from the good old days.  I have looked
through 54 older ferret books dating between 1870s-1970s and the food
choice by far is rodents, birds, animal carcasses and chunks of meat,
including horse and rabbit.  Almost ALL the books dismiss the use of grain
and milk diets as bad for the ferrets, (although by simply mentioning them,
it is evidence such diets were offered by some people).  Several books
indicate corn based products were "deadly" to the ferret.  All in all,
using evidence gleaned from old ads and books, the most common diet for
ferrets was fresh meat and animal carcasses, with horse meat and poultry
remains the most recommended.
 
I don't know when kibble was first used as ferret food, but it was mostly
popular to feed laboratory animals after W.W.II.  It never seemed to be
very common outside that context until the mid 1970s when ferrets became
popular as pets.  Although the "milk and bread" diet is commonly thought
of as popular a century ago, if the literature is any guide, it was NEVER
popular with the majority of breeders who clearly made their preferences
known as "meat."
 
Bob C and 16 Mo' Direct Historical Ankle Nippers
[Posted in FML issue 3020]