I've prepared a few responses for some of Margaret Merchant's questions and
comments about my mouse diet post.
 
[I wrote:]
>The following is my understanding of the ferrets and raw meat diet issue
 
[Margaret wrote:]
>Lumping raw meat in with mice is *exactly* my point, why is one better
>than the other?  I haven't seen >anything to make the distinction between
>the two and that is what I am curious about.
 
The main difference in my case is that my ferrets show no interest in
eating dead meat, but they show great interest in eating mice they have
just killed.
 
[Margaret wrote:]
>After all, they don't feed live prey to big cats in zoos, they feed meat.
 
I worked as an animal management (keeper) volunteer for 5+ years at a local
zoo, working with the river otters, among other animals, and one of the
laments of the zoo's dietitian was that dead meat loses nutrients as it
ages.  For the otters we had to stuff unpalatable supplements into their
food and make sure they ate them.  When possible we put live fish into
their pool for them to hunt and eat.  Keepers of other carnivores had to
do the same (the supplements at least).  The exhibit I volunteered in was
also in charge of herptile quarantine, and the preferred diet (from a
dietitian's point of view) for most of these animals was live or freshly
killed mice (the non-quarantine herps were also given mice, but usually
before the zoo opened).
 
[I wrote:]
>What about kibble?
 
[Margaret wrote:]
>I haven't seen enough that links diet to the cancers.
 
Neither have I, but there may be a link, and diet is something I can
control for my ferrets, so I'm willing to try a change.
 
I completely agree that providing a healthy, enriched environment for our
ferrets is the best way to ensure good health, but as long as there is
doubt on the causes for the rapidly increasing cases of ferret diseases
in this country, I'm going to cover as many bases as I can.
 
[Margaret wrote:]
>Organ meat?  Well, that is available elsewhere, hell my Grandma put it in
>her gravies all the time. Small bones?  Chicken breasts.  Fur and skin?
>Well, chicken skin.
 
My ferrets show no interest is butcher prepared meats or byproducts.  I'm
sure I could probably coax and train them to eat it over time, but I don't
see an advantage to it, and I do see several disadvantages.
 
Even the smallest chicken bone is huge compared to a large mouse bone.
 
Chicken skin (that I can get in the store) has the texture (and strength)
of rubber, whereas mouse skin & fur has the texture of mouse skin & fur
;-).  My ferrets don't care for chicken skin, but some show a fondness for
mouse skin.
 
The chicken I buy in the store may have been treated humanely while it
lived, but the vast bulk of chicken farms have far from ideal living
conditions.  I control the quality of life for the mice in my care, and I
give them an enriched, healthy environment with a good diet.  I feel it is
far more humane for me to use mice that I keep well than to use chicken
that is mass produced as cheaply as possible.
 
By feeding live mice I'm also adding to the enrichment and stimulation of
my ferrets' mental health.  Mouse feeding time is a happy time for my pet
ferrets.
 
[Margaret wrote:]
>And forgive me if this is too dense on my part, seriously, but fur?
>Why do I give my ferrets furball medicine all the time but to clean out
>the fur? They can't digest it, and if you say it is for bulk,
>then what about all the cellulose in the kibbled food?
 
Good questions, and I can only provide hand waving answers at best.  Not all
bulk is the same in diet: what's optimal roughage for some animals may not
be optimal for others.  Mouse fur is quite short (even when compared to the
the short coat of many ferrets).  The ferret's digestive system evolved to
handle fur from small rodents.  Maybe mouse fur isn't optimal as roughage
for my ferrets, but it passes through without any need for hairball goo.
 
Margaret, thanks for posting these questions.  I know I've not provided any
pat answers for "why live mice", because I have none.  It shows how far we
have got to go to find out what's causing the increase in domestic ferret
diseases.
 
Leonard Bottleman       [log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 2548]