Harriet writes
>second ingredient is Chicken by Product Meal (chicken by-products are
>what's left over from human grade foods, feathers, feet, fur, guts, etc.
>and not nutritious at all
 
If a company follows the AAFCO guideline, chicken by-product is NOT
allowed to contain fur, feathers or contents of guts.  According to Dr Tom
Williard, there are MANY grades of chicken by-product available to the pet
food manufacturer, with widely varying degrees of quality.  As pet owners,
we have no way of knowing which quality by-product a company is using.
 
Chicken by-product is not necessarily bad.  It is very difficult for the
customer to tell the difference between good and bad by product.  Price
and company reputation are two clues.
 
By the way, I too got a sample of Path Valley food.  My guys all acted
like it was candy.  So when it ran out, I bought them a bag.  Three of the
4 still love it.  Cookie, who was the one who seemed most addicted to it,
takes a sniff and walks away now.  Go figure!  (This is why I always feed
a mix.  You never know when a food may taste slightly different from batch
to batch, or goes bad, or gets bugs in it, or the store runs out, or the
company changes formula, or the ferret changes his/her mind, or...)
 
>the third ingredient is whole grain brown rice (also is good) and third
>ingredient is rice flour which really is not that nutritious
 
I don't know that there is any good evidence that brown rice is better or
worse than white rice.  Ferrets don't need fiber or carbohydrates, they
are necessary to make kibble.  They aren't getting any needed nutrition
from them.
 
Linda Iroff
Oberlin OH
[Posted in FML issue 3603]