Because so many of us have used some of the Proplan foods as part of a food
mix (so that there are handy foods they readily accept when things like
Totally Ferret might be out of stock temporarily) I had a chat with their
Consumer Office today (1-800-776-7526) and you might also want to do so.
You see, several of their foods have been changed to have corn or ground
corn as a primary ingredient and according to Fox's veterinary text too
much corn in the diet is linked to bladder stones (page 166 of the 1998
edition; part of a WONDERFUL chapter on nutrition which also teaches why
to avoid marine fish or their oil in large amounts, galvanized dishes,
polyunsaturated fats in large amounts, etc.).  Given that ferrets are
already prone to other things that can cause urinary tract problems we
don't need to be spending our hard earned cash to further contribute to
ills.  I pointed out that this is an EXISTING market form which they have
already been making money so they stand to LOSE CURRENT CUSTOMERS if the
ingredients stay this way, and that the Fox book mentions an estimate of
7 million pet ferrets in the U.S. about 5 years ago so it's not a small
amount of cash they are letting go down the drain through their scrimping.
BTW, in some of the food now corn is not only a primary ingredient; in the
chicken food (Used to be called Chicken and Rice recently enough that this
is what the consumer person still had on her screen, and which used to have
poultry products followed by rice as primary ingredients.) corn is now THE
primary ingredient, and in the turkey food corn is now the third mention.
This is a higher amount than I'm willing to risk once the ones we have are
done, and we're diluting them well with lots and lots of Totally Ferret and
home-made food.  Someone posted here a few months back of problems with a
different type of high-cost Purina food; now this has also happened.  Have
not had a chance to read the other Proplan food types because they weren't
restocked but BE CAREFUL.  If you find any of the others similarly changed,
please, let us all know, and re-post the Consumer Office number above:
1-800-776-7526.
 
The ferrets you protect could be your own!
[Posted in FML issue 2563]