I get a LOT of emails regarding Bob's Chicken Gravy, which I am slow
to answer.  When the question is on the FML, I RARELY answer.  If you
carefully look through the archive, you will see this a common pattern of
response over a number of subjects.  I do it purposefully.  Nonetheless,
I do respond from time to time, and Ann's post prompted me to do so.
 
>I've been using Bob's recipe for years.  I add in some rabbit too, they
>love it.
 
ANY meat is acceptable, however if using beef or pork (domesticated
animals bred for high within-muscle fat content), you can cut back on
the added fat by 20-30% or so.  I have made the gravy with rabbit, pork,
turkey, duck, quail, elk, deer, lamb, Cornish game hens, and, of course,
chicken.
 
>ABSOLUTELY!  Anyone trying a mostly meat diet must include bones and
>other organs, and the vitamin supplements.
 
The problem with an all-meat diet is that it is so rich in phosphates
that it unbalances the calcium to phosphate ratio.  This, if minor, can
suck the calcium from the meal, and if severe over a long period, can
suck calcium right out of the bones.  Animal nutritionists--especially
those with a vested interest in selling a kibbled product--tend to use
scare tactics when mentioning this problem, falsely suggesting pet
owners are incapable of balancing the diet.  Rubbish!!  If you eat a
steak Friday, you have probably unbalanced your personal
calcium-phosphate ratio.  Saturday morning you have milk and cereal,
and you have unbalanced it in the opposite direction.  Are you suffering
from rickets?  Wild carnivores tend to eat ill or injured animals, some
of which have imbalanced calcium-phosphate ratios, or only consume part
of them, yet rickets are virtually unheard of in the wild.  Why?  Because
individual meal imbalances are unimportant as long as the ferret's weekly
nutrient balance is maintained.  If your ferret is eating kibble AND
Bob's Chicken Gravy, it's probably a safe bet the long-term nutrient
balance is in order, which is insured if you make the gravy as
recommended.  The requirement that EACH meal needs to be perfectly
balanced is a myth, PROVIDED the nutrient balance is maintained over the
longer run.  If the meals over a 3 or 4 day period of time are in
balance, the diet is ok (as long as the ferrets are healthy).
 
>With ferrets that have been on the diet for some time, and new babies
>just learning, I actually find they eat the bones themselves.
 
Absolutely!  Eating bone is a natural response--those ferrets that refuse
to eat it are almost universally olfactory imprinted and don't recognize
bone as food.
 
>For newbies to the diet or older ferrets that can't chew up the bones,
>the Bone Meal is a great additive...
 
ONLY USE BONE MEAL FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION!  Also, I recommend you bypass
the natural food supplement section and march over to the pharmacy.  You
have to be very careful; many bone meals that find their way into the
natural foods and nutritional supplement section of your supermarket come
from countries that still allow the use of leaded gasoline.  The lead in
the exhaust coats plants and grasses, which are consumed by the cattle
that are the ultimate source of bone meal supplements.  The problem is
that lead is one of those elements that are sequestered in bone, so
cattle, even those raised organically, can have significant lead levels
even if the cattle are never fed hormones or other pharmaceuticals.
Supplements are not necessarily tested or held to government regulatory
standards, but the stuff sold in the pharmacy for human medical use IS
regulated and tested, and is monitored for lead.  Plus, the stuff sold
in the pharmacy section is nearly always cheaper.
 
>Part of the advantage to this diet is giving them good tough tendons and
>crunchy bones to gnaw on....I haven't had to clean teeth in three years
>and I have clean, healthy white teeth with no tartar.  On five year olds.
 
I haven't cleaned my ferret's teeth in so long I wouldn't know who to
ask if I needed to do so.  KIBBLE, rich in sugary carbohydrates, is
the culprit in ferret dental problems.  A meaty diet containing bone,
cartilage, ligaments and tendons cleans teeth, balances oral pH, and not
only scrubs the teeth clean, but also polishes them, helping to prevent
future problems.
 
Ann did a wonderful job answering these questions, and many voices
answering are better than just a few (why I rarely respond to Gravy
questions).  Discussion has the greatest value of all, and I heartily
support this type of unemotional, fact-based debate.  I give passionate,
heartfelt thanks to ALL involved in the discussion, and I hope the
general FML membership will do the same.
 
Bob C
[Posted in FML issue 4214]