Todd wrote:
>The only change that appears to have been made, was a change from rice to
>corn gluten and sorghum (however you spell that!).
 
This isn't really nit-picking, because it is an important distinction,
but the corn Iams uses is NOT gluten, but meal and grits.  Corn gluten is
relatively high in protein, and in some pet foods is used to inflate the
protein levels.  Ferrets cannot get the benefit of this protein, so corn
gluten is definitely a bad ingredient for ferret foods.
 
Also, I got another email from Dr. Jerry Murray, who said that according
to his information, the corn in Iams does not contribute to the protein
levels, and that they add dl-methionine, a urine acidifier, which is also
a good thing.
 
And Todd, you did spell "sorghum" correctly!  I've been reading up a bit on
grain sorghum (there are other types of sorghum, including "broomcorn"
which is used to make brooms).  The sorghum plant looks a lot like corn,
but is not really related.  It is used primarily in this country for
livestock feed, but is an important human food crop in Africa and Asia.
A couple good reference web sites are
http://www.ksgrains.com/sorghum/educate.html and
http://encarta.msn.com/find/Concise.asp?ti=003C5000
 
Todd is right, we all still have a lot to learn about ferret nutrition, and
at this point, we can only go with what seems to work for us and those we
trust.
 
Linda Iroff
Oberlin OH
[Posted in FML issue 3007]