this post from today's FML really caught my eye
 
> Bad ferret food http://www.petfoodshop.com/index.cfm?id=267516
 
I'm hoping Bob Church will give a response, or perhaps someone who has
a good understanding of biology and digestive systems would like to
comment.  the main question I have is whether ferrets would be able to
digest vegetable proteins, given their short digestive tracts.  if not
directly, is there some way to treat the vegetables so that they are
digestable for ferrets.
 
I also think a better way to approach the company, knowing on the
bombard of emails I think they will get, is to ask them what they do
to the diet to make the vegetarian proteins digestable by ferrets.
you know, catch more flies with honey, that kind of thing.. although
ultimately,
 
I think that it would be very hard to convince this guy of anything,
since according to him he's been making vegan diets for 17 years and
been vegan for 30 and he's an animal activist.  the way that he writes
his arguments also seems a little fanatical.  it would take a balanced
argument (pros and cons of veggie and meat) to be able to convince me
of anything.
 
I did a quick google and found a couple of webpages that mention
vegetarian/vegan diets:
 
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_food
 
<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve
&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16817716&query_hl=1&itool=pubmed_docsumRecent>
 
I also did searches with "Evolution diet", "cats", and the words "side
effects", "problems", but didn't find any adverse statement.
 
I'm a happy carnivore (I get dizzy if I don't eat meat), as are my
ferrets, so there's no way I would ever feed my ferrets his diet.
however, one my ferrets favourite treats, and also something that
is generally considered a healthy treat, is n-bone chews, with the
following ingredient list:
 
 Soy protein concnetrate, gelatin, wheat gluten, rosemary, ginger
 chicken meal, taurine.
 
I don't give them more than a third of a stick each per day (and
generally not every day), and it doens't seem to cause funny poos..
however, I wonder how they deal with the soy protein..
 
someone enlighten me, please :)
 
Selina, Clef, Popcorn, Sorin & Mochi
[Posted in FML issue 5346]