Just wanted to piggy back on what a few people said and throw in a little
of my experience...
 
From: S.Hewett
>BARF is not a suitable diet for ferrets.  It is ground, so no good for
>preventing periodontal disease.  Some contains vegetables which a ferret
>needs as much as it need carbs - not at all."
 
Just a little note here, not all BARF diets are ground, it just depends
on your convenience level and what you buy to feed.  BARF is actually
an acronym meaning Bones And Raw Foods so it can be just about anything
that you want to throw in there.  I fed my dogs BARF for some time and
one (big dog) occasionally got a smaller whole chicken fryer and ate
the whole thing, not ground up.  Other days I would throw in whole parts
and ect, every now and again I would supplement with ground meat.  The
reasoning for some vegetables in the BARF diet is to mimic the "whole
prey" experience.  It sounds odd but logically it makes sense.  The
reason for some vegetables in the diet is because most carnivores eat
herbivores and the vegetables are there to mimic the natural enzymes and
food source that would normally be found in the stomach contents when an
animal is killed and eaten in its entirety.  However I am by no means
encouraging you attempt to force broccoli upon your ferret...lol.  Just
stating as to why they are in the BARF diet for the overly inquisitive.
 
If you do an internet search on BARF, all caps for obvious reasons, you
will find a multitude of information.  Each one is a little different,
because as I had stated earlier it is all up to interpretation and what
you are willing to feed your pet.
 
To Tyler Nicholas Mills:
 
I do feel your pain, I myself was a vegetarian for some time, but as I
stated earlier I also fed my dogs raw food.  I did this simply because I
did not agree with the way that the animals were treated.  After a few
years of marriage and other things I switched back slowly, but at least
now there are readily available free range and organic meats out there.
It makes me feel a little better.  However, years ago my husband got a
snake.  We tried the pre-killed frozen prey, with all of the little
tricks to no avail, so we had to switch to live prey.  I had rats as
pets...I couldn't do it, my husband had to.  It was very hard on me but
I still had to think logically, this is the way things work.
 
Kibble is a man made synthetic product.  Nothing is "supposed" to eat
it.  Would you eat it?  We are living in an age where convenience has
outweighed logic.  I myself feed my ferrets kibble.  I'm not a hypocrite,
if I had more time and energy I would go back to feeding a raw diet, its
just not feasible for me at this time.  But to say that it is "wrong" for
someone to do what they believe is the best for their ferrets is just
being argumentative.  The ferrets aren't starving to death, or getting
malnourished and it's sad to say but just like cows and pigs and chickens
these mice and rats and chicks are bread first and foremost as a food
source.
 
So unless you are going to fine the loin for killing the antelope,
chastise the wolf for killing the rabbit, or even flame the pelican for
killing its fish and save every creature on this planet forcing them all
to eat kibble, I think it's a moot point...
 
Samantha
[Posted in FML issue 5198]