I don't want to start a flame war about Marshall Farms, but I couldn't
help but respond with skepticism to the following news from a fellow
ferret owner on this list:
 
" ... Next question is Bailey came with papers from Marshall farms and it
says that the health guantee is only good if I feed her Marshall food,
which I have heard is really good food.  ..."
 
Is this MF's way of trying to put other ferret food manufacturers out of
business?  I noticed they've tried to do the same thing to the inventors
of Cheweasels by offering essentially the same product in a slightly
different shape and at a slightly lower price.  Some might consider this
fair competition in an open marketplace, but I'm beginning to wonder if
MF is a fairly predatory entity.
 
Don't get me wrong -- Marshall Farms' ferret food is a reputable product.
So are many others.  Does MF really expect me to believe that feeding a
ferret from MF another brand of quality ferret food is going to be more
likely to make the ferret sick?  And just what does MF mean by guarantee,
anyway?  Does that mean that if one of their ferrets gets sick, they'll
replace the ferret with another one and leave the owner with the vet bills?
Or they'll take the sick ferret and put it down at no expense to the owner?
 
Most of the illnesses I read about here on the FML are the kinds of
things that are not, IMHO, likely to be caused by the particular brand
of high-quality ferret food or high-quality cat food the ferret eats.
Or the particular brand of chicken baby food or the particular brand of
ingredients used in the ferret's duck soup.  I do, however, suspect there's
a large connection between genetics and adrenal disease, insulinoma,
lymphoma, and a host of other illnesses we read about on this list.  But
that, of course, is a much tougher problem to tackle than telling owners
what brand of food they should feed their ferrets.  In my opinion, MF
minimizes the importance of the real causes of disease by insinuating
that their particular brand of food will solve the health problems.
 
My point?  You've come to the right place by consulting the FML.  You'll
get a lot more valuable information here than in Marshall Farms'
"guarantee."
 
[Moderator's note: Per FML 2716, Marshall Farms' SuperChews are produced
via a licensing agreement with the Cheweasel folks.  BIG]
[Posted in FML issue 3247]