The following is from the package of a nationally known kibbled food
eaten by ferrets (major ingredients only):
 
Crude Protein not less than 31.5%, Moisture not more than 12.0%, Crude Fat
not less than 11.0%, Crude Fiber not more than 4.5%, Salt (NaCl) not more
than 1.5%...  INGREDIENTS:  Poultry by-product meal, ground yellow corn,
wheat flour, corn gluten meal, soybean meal, brewers rice, beef tallow
preserved with mixed-tocopherols, fish meal...
 
The dry weight crude protein is 31.5/100-12 = 35.8%.  The dry weight crude
fat is 11/100-12 = 12.5%.  We cannot determine the net usable protein
because we don't know the biological values and protein digestibility for
the various major components for ferrets.  My guess is that they are known,
but unpublished.  But it is a moot point because we don't actually know the
exact percentage of each ingredient anyway.  And what is the exact organic
makeup of poultry by-products?  And poultry by-product might the the first
ingedient on the list, but is it 50% of the total?  40%?  10%?  If they
don't tell us, how will we know?  We don't.
 
What is the difference between ground yellow corn and corn gluten meal?
Gluten is a vegetable albumin (A PROTEIN) that is used as a thickening
agent in sauces and gravies (the reason you add flour to thicken gravy).
The gluten is still present in the ground corn, so why the two different
categories?  Because by processing out the carbohydrates, it becomes a
separate ingredient, PLUS you increase the crude protein percentage PLUS
you can keep the poultry by-product meal as the first ingredent on the
list.  That way, it appears that the ferret is eating mostly chicken.  The
big problem is, cereal grains have poor quality protein, lacking lysine and
methionine; any rancher will tell you cattle need more than cereal grains
to remain healthy.  And cattle are herbivores, not carnivores.
 
If your ferret is eating this food, they are eating mostly grain.  Poultry
by-product meal *is* the first ingredient, but look at the next five:
ground yellow corn, wheat flour, corn gluten meal, soybean meal, and brewers
rice.  The reason these different grains are being used isn't for any other
purpose than to fool the consumer into thinking the kibble is mostly
poultry.  If you want your product to be 70% grain, but want the consumer
to think it is mostly poultry, then divide the grain into categories you
can list on the ingredient analysis separately.  Use different grains and
make sure they are each less than the single ingredient you want listed
first.  It is a type of technobabble fraud.  Legal?  Yes.  But ethical?
You tell me.
 
What is crude fat?  Fats are essentially chains of fatty acids, and can be
made by animals or plants.  The listing of crude fat does not guarantee that
the product came from an animal.  In fact the 7th ingredient on the list was
beef tallow (preserved with mixed-tocopherols).  Lower on the list are fish
meal, liver, and chicken by-products.  Because poultry by-product meal, fish
meal and liver contain fats, as does grain to some extent (ever hear of corn
oil?), the beef tallow cannot be the entire source for the crude fat.  Since
the crude fat is listed at 11%, the beef tallow must be less.  In truth, it
probably contributes little towards the total crude fat, the rest being
supplied by the remainder of the listed ingredients.  And what is beef
tallow?  It isn't beef fat, or it would have said so.  Tallow is the grease
that results from rendered animal tissue, and is a common by-product of
rendering animal bones for their gelatin (makes jello).  It is used in soaps
and as lubricants.  And as animal feed.  If you want to see the difference
between fat and tallow, the next time you buy a steak, look at the fat.
Compare it to the grease you get after cooking low-grade hamburger.  At
least you know hamburger tallow is fit for human consumption.  What do you
know about the beef tallow?
 
Any idea what crude fiber is?  Thats right, you don't.  It can literally be
anything.  Sawdust.  Wood Chips.  The plant residue left over from
extracting sugar from beets.  Hair.  Feathers.  Or, perhaps, ground up grain
or nut husks.  In this case, the crude fiber could be from any of the plant
products, or added later to increase bulk.  We simply don't know.
 
Now here's the big kicker.  All this stuff, the poultry by-products, the
tallow, the grains; all of it has to be cooked to kill the bacteria.  This
is important because poultry by-products can include intestines full of E.
coli and other bacteria, not to mention the parts that had been discarded
because of being infected or contaminated.  They also have to be baked to
make the kibble.  What does that do to the proteins and fats?  It breaks
them apart, or denatures them.  But not like with enzymes, which cut the
proteins and fatty acids at specific points, preserving the amino acids.
Cooking breaks them apart at random points, which destroys much of the
essential fatty and amino acids in the process.  That is why taurine is
*added* to cat food, because it is denatured in the cooking process.  And
not just taurine, but other amino acids and vitamins.  Look on your
ingredient list, and you will find nearly half of it to be replacements for
the stuff that has been lost in processing.
 
A few more definitions.  "Fish meal" is the ground up leftovers from fish
butchering, and is typically waste tissue, heads, scales, fins and bones.
It can also include rejected or spoiled fish.  "By-products" are blood,
discarded tissues or organs, bone, fat, bristle, hair, feathers, wool, hide,
skin, hoof, horn, brains, thymus, pancreas, liver, heart, kidney, tripe,
intestines, blood vessels, tendons, and body wastes.  "Digesta" is literally
digest, or the material from the inside of the stomach, intestines and
bowel.  "Glandular meal," is ground up glandular tissue, and could be just
about any hormone-producing gland in the body, such as the testes.  "Ash" is
what is left over after everything is burned, mostly minerals from bones.
If a specific name is given, such as "herring" rather than fish, then the
meal is made from that animal rather than the more general category.  The
more general the term, the less you know what the ferret is actually eating.
The worst term I have come across has been "meat meal" which could mean
anything, but probably refers to ground up animals from tallow rendering
plants.
 
Bob C and 20 MO Bouncing Bobos
[Posted in FML issue 2311]