Hello Regina,
 
I just saw our post & thought I would send you my 2 cents worth.  I have
not heard of ZuPreem food for ferrets first of all.
 
I raise exotic birds.  When I had Cockatiels I wanted to give them
something for a treat at night when I collected the soft food dishes & gave
them fresh water.  The larger birds all got peanuts & I thought the Tiels
were too small to eat them, plus they don't hold their food as the larger
ones do so I couldn't see how they could eat them.  I decided to sprinkle
some ZuPreem pellets on top of their regular pellets, Kaytee.  After awhile
when I would go out in the morning I started to find dead birds.
 
You might know that a bird won't show any signs of illness until it is
almost too late to treat them or they turn up dead.  After about 4 of them
died I took the bodies of 2 to my vet so he could try to find out why they
died.  All he could tell me was that they died of kidney failure but not
what caused it.  So they were sent off to a lab.  The results came back
that they had a build up of Vit D in their kidneys.
 
Dr. Murphy asked me what in the heck I was feeding them as he thought I was
feeding KT.  Said I was & had almost forgot about the ZuPreem.  Told him
about that & how it was much but just enough for a little treat.  At the
most it would have been about a tablespoon full for 2 birds.  Then I got a
lecture.  On their products KT uses the word "Exact" , which mean exactly
that.  They do ex-tensive testing on everything.  They test & test again &
again before it leaves their plant.  Every batch is exactly the same as the
batch before it & after it & 100 more batches.  The ingredients are exactly
the same & in the same proportion.  Which was why I was feeding that to my
birds & still am.
 
However he said smaller companies like ZuPreem & Pretty Bird to name 2
don't do that.  One batch may have not enough of one thing in it another
may have too much.  He stated a case to me about Pretty Bird where they
were just successfully sued by a big breeder that had lost a lot of birds,
had the food tested & found out that was what killed the birds.  (I say
recently but this was a few years ago) He said those companies count on
small breeders like me not to be able to afford to get the food tested if
there is a problem.  It cost $100 per bird to have the 2 of mine tested
which wholesale I'd have been lucky to get $25 each for them.  I think he
said the cost of having the food tested was over $500.  I don't remember
exactly now.  Anyway small breeders couldn't afford that & that would be
for only one kind of food, & for every container.  Like 3 bags of food,
you'd want all 3 tested so that would run over $1,500.00.
 
Well he was right about me not being able to have the food tested that's
for sure.  Told me to stop the ZuPreem & stick with KT.  I did & didn't
lose another bird that way, & hadn't before I tried the ZuPreem.  I don't
even want to think what would have happened if that had been their regular
food & not just a treat.
 
So anyway if I hear of anyone even thinking of using ZuPreem I speak up.
Their ferret food may be good, not saying it isn't.  But from my experience
I am not using it for anything.  I think it is too dangerous.  Now there
may be people that do have their birds on a regular diet of ZuPreem & they
haven't had a problem so all I can do is relate my experience with it.
 
Hope this helps.
 
BTW I started giving them peanuts & those little guys found a way to eat
them.  Even started doing what I call the Amazon peanut Dance when I'd go
out in the afternoon, wanting their peanuts.
 
Sincerely,
Lynn Siegel & the 14 furs.
[Posted in FML issue 2845]