Since we've all been concerned about what we feed our ferrets, here's a
link to an interesting story by a man who has been involved with ferrets
since 1964 in the UK and the various diets he's fed to ferrets.  Go to
http://www.wessexferretclub.co.uk/comments.htm
and see comment "From the Old Polecat Himself."  I came across this
awhile ago, and have been meaning to refer you guys to it.
 
As far as the heated controversy goes, all of us who spend the time to
read and offer advice on the FML do so because we really care about our
ferrets and want the best for them, whether we feed kibble, raw, or a
mixture.  There are so many factors about ferret health that are beyond
our control, like breeding/genetics, environmental conditions, age at
weaning & neutering, etc.  When I discussed food with my vet and
mentioned that Rocky started out eating the crappy Eight-in-One with
raisin juice (Can't remember which is which--Ultimate or Ultra; one is
better) he said that even though it's not the greatest food, he's seen
ferrets who've done well on it.  And I recently met a ferret lover who
has only fed her two ferrets that food and one lived to age 9 1/2 (died
of adrenal--no treatment) and the other is now 7 1/2 and looks very
healthy.
 
The only really bad diet I've heard of was someone who wanted to feed
his/her ferret a vegetarian diet.
 
There's only so much we can do; we all have to do what's most comfortable
for us and our ferrets and hope for the best.
 
Dooks,
Shron & Rocky
[Posted in FML issue 5168]