Dear Shea:
 
>Doctor Williams, your opinion please?  I feed my ferret Ferret Diet (8
>in 1 brand) and have been told that it is not good for my ferret.  Your
>advice?
>
>I'm including, per another FMLers insistance, the ingredients and daily
>values.
>
>Ingredients:
>Poultry by-product meal, Brewers Rice, Ground Yellow Corn, Corn Gluten
>Meal, Chicken Fat, Brewers dried yeast, Taurine, DL-Methionine, Choline
>Chloride, Vitamine A Acetate, D-Activated Animal Sterol, Vitamin E
>Supplement, Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, d-Calcium
>Pantothenate, Folic Acid, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Menadione Sodium
>Bisulfite Complex, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Zinc Oxide, Calcium
>Carbonate, Iron Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Copper Oxide, Ethylenediamine
>Dihydriodide, Potassium Chloride, Cobalt Carbonate.
 
Let me first state that I am not a nutritionist, so there are more
qualified people out there to talk on this subject.
 
Actually, your ferret is probably the acid test for whether a food is good
or not, rather than the opionions of myself or the rest of the FML.  Is he
healthy and active - does he hold his weight?  Is his appetite and stools
good?
 
The ingredients and levels in this food is very similar to those which are
found in other high quality ferret and cat foods.  People tend to pick up
brand identity very strongly, and often think that their brand is the best,
and the only one!  This particular food will most likely supply all of
the requirements that your ferret will need, and he should do well on it.
People tend to get very worked up when they consider poultry byproducts,
rice, and corn - but actually, these are common ingredients in animal
feeds.  While some ferret chows, including Totally Ferret, use a higher
quality of chicken , many animals live long healthy lives with lesser
quality.  When a mustelid in the wild catches prey, does it simply eat the
muscle meat?  Of course not - a little bit of everything, including bone
and viscera is eaten by the predator.
 
Bottom line - there isn't any proof that one ferret chow is better than
another.  Some may use higher quality base, and we feel better feeding it
to our ferrets, but in the long run, I have yet to see any definitive
evidence that any of he commercially available ferret chows result in a
lower plane of nutrition or a higher incidence of disease than anyone else.
 
If your ferrets like it, stick with it.
 
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams DVM
[Posted in FML issue 3254]