To Amy Evers and Sue K:
 
Ferrets are carnivores - meat-eating animals.  They have a very short
digestive tract and don't have a cecum.  Because of this short digestive
tract, they don't digest plant fibers well at all - it pretty much passes
right on through.  In the wild, polecats, weasels, etc, get their plant
needs from stomach conents of their prey.  The plant materials in the prey
they eat is already partially digested by the prey, making it easier for the
polecat, weasel, etc to complete the process.
 
Dogs, OTOH, are omnivores.  They do eat plant products along with meat.
Humans are ominvores and eat both meat and plants - and BTW, humans have
canine teeth as well.
 
I'm really surprised that zoo personnel would think like this.  As Kelleen
said in her post about Happy Cat, many of us might eat candy and sweets all
the time - doesn't mean it's good for us - same with ferrets - they might
like the sweetness of fruits and raisins, but they aren't really good for
ferrets.  Humans eat alot of junk food with no nutritional value at all, so
just because the ferrets eat all the fruits and veggies the zoo feeds them,
doesn't mean it is good for them.  I bet those ferrets have very loose
stools if not outright diarrhea.
 
Debbie Riccio
WNYFLFA
Rochester, NY
[Posted in FML issue 1519]