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>>Ferrets will kill just for the love of it. To them it is a most
>>wonderful enterprise." (E. Lipinski)
>
>Ferrets do not kill for the love of it. Ferrets kill to survive.
>That is all.

Melanie

Those that do not, cannot or would not feed live prey to their
carnivorous predatory ferrets will NEVER see how in fact ferrets DO
delight in the thrill of the kill! Ferrets MOST definitely will go on 
a killing spree beyond just killing for a meal! That was one of the
things in their nature that made them so desirable before the advent of
pesticides. Whereas a cat will hunt and kill a few times through the
day, they do tend to play for long periods of time with one or two of
their victims. Ferrets are tenacious, tireless and single minded in
their business of killing.

Ferrets will keep on killing until nothing moves. Ferrets are more
efficient killing machines than even sharks - because a shark will
kill for the meal being consumed at the moment. If the victim is large
enough the shark will eat itself into a stupor. But it won't keep
killing. A shark doesn't kill now so that it can eat later. Ferrets do.

Ferrets on the other hand WILL, especially where rodents are concerned,
kill and kill and kill and kill again. Never stopping to eat their
victim until they are assured there are NO more potential victims!
Ferrets will make a kill then stash, kill again and stash and repeat
this process until they are absolutely certain there are no more
potential victims. This is why ferrets were so desirable as rodent
control on farms and in the cities especially, besides the fact they
could get into places that cats couldn't - they just don't give up!

Ferrets on the hunt have a singular purpose of mind: to find and
eradicate their intended victim. They cannot be side tracked,
discouraged nor swayed with offers of other forms of food unless
that food happens to be another live victim!

My ferrets ARE naturally fed and I often allow them the opportunity to
exercise their innate hunting skills. I have started a very young kit
on natural and live prey and I have "converted" 7 other kibble fed
ferrets of various ages to the natural/whole/live prey diet and
everyone of them exhibited this pure joy at killing.

And it IS pure joy! Their tails will bristle and vibrate. They will
begin endless chuckles and chortles. Their ears are alert, eyes are
bright. After a successful kill and tucking away of the prey they zoom
back to where they found their first victim and excitedly start all
over again! The times when a ferret managed to gain entry into my
feeder bin and breeding bins of mice, in mere moments she managed to
kill several mice. Stacking them neatly in a corner of the bin to then
turn and besiege another victim. She could have easily just killed one,
then exited and devoured her meal, but instead she stayed happily in
the bins until being discovered and extracted by me. Even still for
many moments afterward she attempted to regain entry and could not be
swayed from her intent even with the offering of one of her victims --
she knew there were more mice available for killing. This kind of
killing goes beyond what is necessary for mere "survival" or the daily
meal. Ferrets DO at least eat their entire victims, as long as they
remember where they stashed them. Where as the "documented" killings
by some cetaceans of other cetaceans and of primates killing other
primates were for the sole purpose of consuming ONE portion of the
victim's body: in the case of cetaceans; the tongue of the whale by
Orcas and of the primates a monkey's brains by chimpanzees. The rest of
the victim's body was left for other scavengers. Ferrets tend NOT to
share their kills, nor leave them intentionally for others to devour.

Regarding feeding "RAW": I DO offer my ferrets whole prey, live prey,
raw food of all sorts and have been successful converting many kibble
entrenched ferrets. I've noticed an incredible bloom in health (even
for ferrets thought previously healthy on kibble) and even my vet has
commented on their external healthy appearance, tone and weight - until
I mention the ferrets ARE naturally fed, then I get a lecture on the
so called dangers and hazards. I've done, and continue to do extensive
research on nutrients and various foods offering them so my ferrets get
a wide range of offerings.

I raise my own mice now, so those too are raised on natural foods
and I can see the health of those prey animals and know how they get
dispatched and am assured they were neither stored improperly nor have
endured dangerous freeze/thaw cycles.

My ferrets don't get JUST raw meat - they get WHOLE prey and WHOLE raw
meaty bones. It is SO important to know that feeding a "raw" diet goes
far beyond just throwing them hunks of meat and expecting them to
become healthy. Ferrets need to eat, yes eat, bones, sinew, skin, fur
and cartilage besides meat. When they consume whole rodents the fur,
claws and teeth although indigestible actually benefit the ferret. As
these indigestible products get pushed through the intestines, the fur
wraps around the shards of bone, teeth and claws gets twisted into a
soft, pliable, thin rope that gently wipes through the intestines and
is easily expelled. So many ferrets with "IBD and supposed "chicken
allergies" are more likely suffering from severely abraded intestinal
walls from the coarse grains, COOKED ground bones, chicken beaks, feet
and ground feathers so common in most kibbles. I did my own scat
dissection and comparison between a kibble meal and a mouse morsel
here: http://www.putfile.com/album/122667

Feeding kibble is a choice made by the ferret caretaker that imposes a
human's ideology of what is healthy for the ferret. Given a choice from
birth a ferret will choose a natural whole prey diet. Given a choice
after being converted all my ferrets choose their natural foods over
kibble offerings. Given the choice to eat a raw or already dispatched
meal my ferrets will all happily choose to kill their own and they
don't stop killing until they realize there aren't any more mice to
kill.

Cheers,
Kim

[Posted in FML 6223]