Just thought I should clarify a couple of things.
 
In Ferret List Issue # 1483, Michael Dutton writes:
 
>Most foods will cause a secondary urine alkalinizing effect (i.e., less
>acid).  Certain cat foods have been made to avoid this to prevent urine
>crystal formation.  The problem is that these foods have vegetable based
>protein as their main ingredient (c/d by Hills, CNM u/r by Purina, etc.) so
>they are not the choice of diets for ferrets.
 
Actually animal protein is the main ingredient in Hill's c/d Prescription
Diet (at least it's the first ingredient listed: Poultry By-Product Meal,
Ground Corn, Brewer's Rice, Animal Fat, etc).  My vet told me it's a good
food that can be used indefinitely, if that becomes necessary.  For now
though I've found some more of the ANF Tami, which they had been on for a
couple of years before without apparent trouble.
 
>Hills feline growth is meat based and has less of a tendency for alkaline
>urine and that may be enough for your ferret.  Another option is the use of
>an urine acidifying supplement such as Methigel.
 
I will look into both options. Thanks, Dr. Dutton.
 
>From [log in to unmask]  Thu Feb 22 12:10:03 1996
>1)  Magnesium is the #1 factor/constituent of solids that "crystalize" or
>precipitate in urine - magnesium should be shown on the bag to be less than
>0.01%.  If it is not listed, call the manufacturer.
 
I think Monica means 0.1% here. All the foods I've been looking at were
around 0.1% or a little lower (those that listed Magnesium anyway). The
Hill's c/d states specifically that it's Magnesium restricted, and lists
0.08%.
 
--
John Rosloot, Caregiver to Cassidy and Sammy
With loving memories of my dear departed Buddy
Technical analyst, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Regina
Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
http://www.cs.uregina.ca/~john/ferrets.html
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[Moderator's note: At the risk of stating the obvious, I feel compelled to
point out that it's not always easy to compute the primary source of protein
just by reading the ingredient list.  While ingredients are indeed listed in
weight order, let's say the list reads "poultry, corn, rice, soybean meal,
beef fat, ..."  So, the food might be 55% poultry.  Great.  But it might be
21% poultry, 20% corn, 20% rice, 20% soybean... not so great.  BIG]
[Posted in FML issue 1486]