Choosing a diet for our fuzzy carnivores does involve weighing up pros
and cons
 
Insulinoma
 
- thought to be caused by kibble
- thought to be the most common neoplasm in the USA
 
Periodontal Disease (also called dental disease or mouth rot)
 
- wild carnivores eat other animals (and parts of animals) and are
  virtually free from the disease
- very common in carnivores fed kibble
 
Choking
 
- extremely uncommon and can be caused by anything that a ferret puts
  in his or her mouth including kibble, prey or meaty bones (or rocks,
  or apple, or rubber bands).
 
Food Borne Pathogens
 
- extremely uncommon and can be caused by many things, as germs are
  everywhere - I heard on the news yesterday that over 100 people in my
  area came down with salmonella poisoning from eating alfalfa sprouts.
 
Carnivores are designed to eat other animals (or pieces of other
animals), not grain-based pellets.  Just as cows are supposed to eat
grass, and frogs eat insects.
 
Fortunately, one of the problems kibble causes is easy to prove (dental
disease) and already has been: search the archives for "Bob C: Ferret
Dental Problems".
 
You can even prove it to yourself at home: feed half your ferrets kibble,
and half your ferrets prey and/or meaty bones for a year or two.  Get
their teeth checked by a vet dentist or a vet who who knows how to pick
up periodontal disease (it can be hard to detect).
 
Imagine if religion were as simple to prove or disprove, how much world
wide conflict it would save :)
 
Nothing in life is without risk, but feeding ferrets the diet they are
designed to eat - prey and/or meaty bones - has the most pros and the
least cons by far.
 
shona
[Posted in FML issue 5163]