Q:"I was reading through old FMLs and noticed you said bones were good for
ferrets to eat.  I thought they could get stuck or cut the insides of the
stomach.  Can you explain why you promote them?"
 
A: Sure.  The bones held up their end, so I thought they deserved another
stripe.  Soon they will make sargeant.
 
Do you know why dogs choke on chicken bones?  Because dogs don't chew; they
cut to size and swallow.  Chewing requires a side-to-side motion of the
jaw, and dog jaws cannot do that, at least not sigificantly so.  When you
see a dog gnawing on a bone, what you are seeing is the dog repeatedly
biting the bone with the cutting teeth, or carnassials.  This will
completely chew up the ends of a bone, and even fracture the long skinny
middle into small pieces, but it is not chewing.  Humans and bears can
chew a little, and cows and beavers chew a lot, but dogs, cats and ferrets
do not chew; they bite, cut and tear.  Their jaws only go up and down, not
side to side.
 
Do you know why you don't have to do the Heimlich on dogs very often?
Because dogs don't walk upright and talk.  Humans have a unique throat;
we can swallow things that have no chance in hell of going past our throat
(no jokes, please!).  Dogs and other carnivores are different; if it passes
their teeth and they can they swallow it, it almost always makes it into
their stomach.  Cats and ferrets are the same way; if small enough to get
in their throats, its small enough to take the long slide into poophood.
If it is too big, they just cough it forward, bite it into a few more
pieces, and swallow again.  Sh*t happens.
 
So why can't dogs have chicken bones or some fish bones?  Because they can
be swallowed entire, or worse, have one end broken off to a sharp point and
swallowed.  Dogs don't understand they have to chew these things, and even
if they did, they still have the very real difficulty in that they can only
repeatedly bite, not chew.  See, they evolved to rip off chunks of food,
and swallow it whole.  I once watched a wolf rip baseball sized chunks of
meat from an elk and swallow them whole, tear off to the den, and ralph
them up for the pups, who also swallowed them whole.  When a wolf eats a
small mammal, say a praire chicken, it rips it apart and swallows the bone
*INSIDE* chunks of meat, so the entire bundle makes it to the stomach
without getting caught.  But a scrap from the table lacks the protective
bundle of meat around it, and the bone has a very real chance of getting
stuck in the throat.  And as a vet will tell you, it happens all the time,
and dogs can die from it.
 
But what about ferrets?  The ferret's jaw is locked to the skull preventing
even the slightest chance of chewing, so it also has to repeatedly bite
things to get them small enough to swallow.  However, what to a dog is
just a simple gulp (the chicken bone) is to a ferret impossible to swallow
whole.  In fact, the chicken bone is larger in the ferret's mouth than a
cow bone in a dog's mouth.  Let me ask you, how many people have a problem
with dogs eating cow bones?  Think about it.  Ok, assuming a ferret wants
to eat the bone, how can it get past the teeth?  Well, the ferret just
starts biting it to pieces, starting not in the middle, but at one end,
just like a dog does with the cow bone.  Ferrets, cats, dogs, mongeese,
lions--it doesn't matter, they all do it the same way.
 
Now, the "ends" (or epiphyses in osteobabble) are made up of a spongy type
of bone called cancellous bone, and looks like lots of tiny cells under
the microscope.  These cells are filled with a fat and protein rich tissue
called red bone marrow, full of iron, vitamins and other really, really
good stuff.  Fractured particles of this cancellous bone will not get stuck
in a ferret's throat, esophagus, stomach, intestine or anus.  They can eat
tons of it and NEVER have a problem.  It is as safe or safer to eat than
kibble, and a hell of a lot better for their teeth.
 
When a ferret finishes off the ends of the bone, can it now swallow the
middle?  No way; it would be like a human trying to swallow an unsliced
bologna (no jokes!  You've been warned!).  What the ferret has to do is
exactly what a dog has to do with a cow bone; gnaw and chip off pieces of
the tube that are small enough to swallow whole.  Admittedly, there is a
slight risk of injury here; it is unlikely, but theoretically possible that
a long, skinny, sharp spinter of bone could puncture the esophagus; that
is, assuming it could get swallowed in the first place.  In reality, these
"middles," (or diaphyses in osteobabble) are rarely consumed when other
food is available.  In ecologicobabble, it is called "optimal foraging;
that is, eating the best food at the lowest cost.  You know, the opposite
of eating at MacDonalds.
 
[posted in 2 parts... combined into one.  BIG]
 
So, what is the danger in a ferret eating bone?  There are two oft-reported
"dangers."  One, a splinter of bone could poke through the esophagus,
stomach, or intestine, causing bowel contents to spill into the sterile
body cavity, ruining the ferret's day.  The other one is a sharp-edged bone
fragment could cut into the lining of the esophaus, stomach or intestine,
and cause serious bleeding, ruining not only the ferret's day, but also the
carpet under the tarry poopie.
 
Can bone actually puncture the gastrointestinal tract?  Yes, it can.  In
the last few years, I have done an extensive literature search on the
subject, and have found three documented cases where wild carnivores have
died from perforated bowels caused by eating bone.  One was a least weasel,
which died when a deer mouse femur perforated the duodeum and lacerated a
kidney.  I have also found many references to problems caused by bones in
domestic dogs reported in veterinary literature and a few with cats.  Has
it ever happened to a ferret?  No confirmed cases reported anywhere, at any
time, that I can uncover.  But, in all honesty--and that's what this list
is about--one person told me their vet reported their ferret had died from
internal bleeding after eating a chicken bone and it made cuts throughout
the bowel.  I have not confirmed the report with the vet.
 
Can bone actually cut the inner surface of the gastrointestinal tract and
cause a ferret to bleed to death?  Perhaps with sick ferrets, but very
unlikely with typical healthy ferts.  It is possible to cut the inside of
the esophagus, but the rest of the bowel is extremely unlikely.  Why?
Because of stomach acids, mucous and the laws of physics.  The slimy,
snotty mucous protects a ferret's GI tract not only from stomach acids, but
also from sharp stuff as well because it reduces friction tremendously.
Ever try cutting something without friction?  Besides, a length of bowel
isn't glued in place; it moves within the abdominal cavity.  Ever try
cutting something that moves away from you every time you push against it?
 
Finally, bone breaks because it is a biological ceramic.  It breaks like
glass, which is why it can get sharp points and edges.  But, it cannot
handle acid.  Put a chicken bone in battery acid and come back the next
day and you can tie the bone in a knot.  This is true because the mineral
is gone, leaving behind the collagen matrix.  Now, a bone in only in a
ferret's stomach for just a few minutes--not long enough to completely
disolve-- but it is still disolved some; enough to round off the sharp
edges and spikes on the fragments.  In fact, that rounding, called "polish"
or "etching," is one established way archaeologists can tell bone was
digested by animals.  Bone polish prevents sharp edges from cutting the
inside of the GI tract.
 
The proof of the pudding is in the actual safety of the product, as
consumed by populations of carnivores.  If bone was a problem for them to
eat, why are carnivores still hanging around the street corners looking for
trouble and flashing their gang scents?  The answer is evolution.  Over
the millions of years to took for carnivores to evolve, then more millions
of years for mustelids to evolve, then even more millions of years for
polecats to evolve, the job of eating bone was been pretty well figured
out.  They know how to do it at the same level we know how to swallow
mother's milk.  You can accidentally choke on it from time to time, but it
rarely kills you.  To carnivores, bone is food.
 
But ferrets are domesticated, for gosh-darn sakes!!  Really?  So what did
all those sweet little people who domesticated the ferret for us feed them
for the last 2500 years?  Medieval Marshalls Ferret Food?  Bronge Age
Kibble?  While they were domesticated, they were eating essentially the
same foods as polecats ate; the dead bodies of prey animals, which,
interestingly enough, contain bone.  Domestication has changed some of the
behaviors of the ferret, even some of its physiology, but there is no way
on this little blue ball in space that domestication has changed the
biochemistry and physiology of the ferret's entire digestive tract.  If so,
then all those feral ferrets living in New Zealand must be ready to roll
over and die from choking on the bones of their prey.  Send the info to
CaCaLand, and I'll bet ferrets will be legal next week.
 
This is the bottom line.  You don't have to feed your ferret's bone.  I
am personally convinced its a fantastic food and have been feeding to my
carpet sharks for the last few years without a single problem.  But you
don't have to believe that.  Nor do you have to criticize people who do.
Bone is an extremely nutritious source of essential fatty acids, trace
elements, fats and iron, as well as an important source for bone minerals.
Carnivores have long evolved mechanisms for eating bone, especially in
those sizes that come packaged within their normal prey body sizes, and
while no one wants to lose a beloved pet, the injury rate is insignificant.
Since the cancellous parts of bone contain the best of the nutrients, and
these parts are harmless because they don't splinter, if you are worried,
feed only the ends of longbones, backs and backbones.  Or, completely
eliminate the problem by only feeding your ferret sections of pork or beef
bones; these are far too hard for a ferret to chew up into dangerous
pieces.  Mine love the soft marrow centers.  Or pound the bone with a
hammer, and pull out the large splinters.
 
You don't have to cook bone to make it a good food for ferrets, but some
people are worried about bugs, so cooking might be a good idea.  It will
also soften the bone somewhat if you boil it, but make it harder if you
cook it with dry heat.
 
As with anything, don't expect a novice bone-eater to not make the
occasional mistake, so don't dump a pile of left-over Kentucky Fried on the
floor and take off to the movies.  Until you feel comfortable, hang around
just to make sure millions of years of evolution hasn't gone haywire.
 
Bob C and 19 Bone Breaker Mo' Rants
[Posted in FML issue 2622]