In issue 384 Nancy Hartman offers some guidelines for ferret nutrition.
I guess I have a somewhat philosophical problem with some of this.  In
general, and in my opinion, it is dangerous to generalize about how foods
and drugs are handled by different species - there are VAST differences,
which are often not obvious at all.  Some well known cases are Tylenol
being toxic to cats but not to dogs or humans (in normal quantities, of
course) or chocolate having some toxicity in dogs vs. people.
 
Regarding some specific comments of Nancy's:
 
>No chocolate -- some argue that there's never been studies to confirm
>that chocolate is lethal to ferrets.  But we all know just how
>many studies have been done on ferrets...
 
But note that there is considerable anecdotal evidence that chocolate is
fine.  Stuff like ferrets who got into the bag of chocolate chips and ate
half the bag.  Also note that Dr. Rosenthal has publicly stated that
"chocolate in small quantities seems to cause no problem for ferrets".
(I wouldn't normally quote her without her permission but she stated
this in a public forum).
 
>...Since chocolate is lethal to dogs in such amazingly small quantities, I
>strongly suggest you don't give it to your ferrets.
 
The quantity required to send a dog to the great dog biscuit in the sky is
not all that small.  According to the Merck the lethal dose of milk chocolate
is somewhere around 4 oz/kg of body weight.  In other words, if you have a 20
lb dog, it would have to eat over 2 1/4 POUNDS of milk chocolate to be in
deep doodoo!  (Unsweetened chocolate is considerably more toxic but luckily
much more unpalatable).  Even if we extrapolate to ferrets, which in my
opinion is a nearly useless thing to do, the 1/2 gram chocolate chips one
sometimes give ferrets as rewards pose NO problem... unless, of course, you
have a 5 gram ferret :-)
 
No, I'm not saying you should feed your ferrets chocolate.  I'm saying don't
panic if your ferret eats some.  I'm also saying you *might* want to consider
small quantities of chocolate as occasional treats.  Probably better for the
teeth than raisins anyhow.
 
>No onions -- Again, I've never heard any ferret-specific information
>on this, but they make dogs anemic.
 
First I've heard of this, and can't find anything to support it (I didn't
look much) but luckily I don't know of a dog OR a ferret who will eat raw
onions.  Do you know if cooked onions also present a problem?
 
>Minimal salt -- ferrets don't sweat, so they shouldn't get too much.
 
Ferrets DO have sweat glands, but according to Fox, they are "poorly
developed".   Fox says that a diet containing about 1% salt is about
right.  Not a problem if you use commercial food.  If you make your own
for some reason, salt is necessary.
 
Note that the need for salt has little to do with sweating.  Many animals
that don't sweat heavily (bovines, rodents) are routinely given salt blocks.
They lick em if they need em and don't overdose on it.  Smarter than humans,
for sure!  (Also, I think, but I am not sure, that salt in sweat is unique
to humans).
 
>Minimal refined sugar -- it's not good for us either.
 
Right.  But I'm sure glad I'm not in a cage being having my low salt, low
sugar, no chocolate, no dairy diet decided for me!
 
>Minimal cow's milk/dairy products -- it gives them diarrhea, which
>can cause dehydration very quickly in ferrets.  Goats milk is O.K.
 
I echo CT Hart's question.  I agree that lots of milk can cause diarrhea
but is it the lactose?  Interesting about goat's milk... I didn't know that.
Will try to read up on it.
 
>Watch fat-soluble vitamins, A, E, etc. -- they build up in the system
>and become toxic.  No more than 2-3 drops of Linatone/Ferretone a day!!!
 
I think this is a generalization again.  It is certainly true with humans,
and certainly not true in some other species.  I don't know if it is true
for ferrets, nor apparently does Fox, though he states that "Toxicity
... was not observed in pregnant females consuming up to 4200 IU vitamin
A/kg body weight daily".
 
[I thought it was D that was the problem]
 
Note that the recommended intake for pregnant HUMAN folks is 5000 IU (NOT per
kg) so it sure seems at first sight that ferrets can tolerate huge doses of
vitamin A without problem.  (One more note: in people, it often takes a long
time for vitamin A to build up to toxic levels, so the length of a ferret
pregnancy might not have been a long enough test).
 
>(Note:  they are beneficial in small quantities, don't stop giving
>it altogether)
 
Agreed, though my experience with linatone is that it will eventually
turn rancid, at which point it is probably best to get a fresh bottle.
According to Fox again, rancid fat can cause problems.
 
>No raw meat -- parasites.  (although this fits into the "don't give
>it to your ferrets if it's no good for you" rule, many people for
>some reason give raw meat to animals anyway.)
 
Yeah, what can I say.  Some people think it's "in" to eat raw meat and
sushi is quite popular.  It does pose some risk, but I wouldn't keep my
cat from catching mice, nor would I much care if a ferret ate one.  I mean
it's not like polecats line up at the drive-in window of a McDonalds.
A lab in England fed mice to ferrets with good results, I've fed rats
to snakes, my ferrets love bits of raw bacon, and I eat sushi too!  (And,
gasp!, I wear seat belts too!... such contradictory behavior :-)... sigh).
 
Not to imply that Nancy's advice doesn't have merit, of course.  But my
opinion is that the risks are quite small compared to the risk of a car
accident speeding to the vet because you think that your furball is gonna
die because it ate a piece of raw meat it found in the garbage.
 
Like everything folks, some people are ultra conservative, which isn't
necessarily a bad idea, and some people are a little more... eh... daring.
I'd say do what makes sense to you based on everything you can find out.
I may be no more correct or incorrect than Nancy on this stuff, but I do
think you should get both sides of the story.
 
Bill Gruber
 
[It should be pointed out that there is a significant risk posed by
commercially produced (eg: supermarket) meat in the raw.  Health officials
warn against eating raw meat, particularly chicken, and for good reason.
A live animal is unlikely to pose much of a problem - they're still alive
after all - you'd probably not feed an obviously sick animal to a a pet
either.  OTOH, commercially produced meat is produced in large quantities,
under occasionally doubtful conditions, and sometimes "sees" very poor
conditions in storage.  Salmonella (a disease, not a parasite per-se) in
chicken or eggs being one of the major hazards.
 
I've listened to, and read several items from Canadian Ministry of Health
officials and their US counterparts, plus US doctors who specialize in
food poisonning.  It was interesting to note some of the comments - Canadian
procedures regarding eggs, dairy products and meats are such that the
incidence of problems with food being contaminated _at_the_time_of_purchase_
is very low in Canada with most foods.  But that in eggs and poultry,
the salmonella rates can be as high as *10%* or more in some parts of the
US.  Leading one US food poisoning expert, who was very fond of
steak tartare himself, to say "it's completely insane to eat raw meat here".
 
Ferrets do very well with prepared high quality cat food.  Aside from the
occasional cooked meat or other treat, it seems rather silly to insist
on exposing your pet to risk with raw meats, or excessive amounts of
other unnatural foods.  You can be sure that adult wild mustelids don't
get milk as part of their diet - particularly milk specialized for baby
bovines.  Or goats for that matter.
 
One of the UK books on ferrets describes how to select and prepare
road-kills for ferrets.  OTOH, most ferret-keeping in the UK is for
*cheap* working (hunting) animals; the afore-mentioned book advising
against bothering with vets for sick ferrets - "they're only a couple
of shillings in markets..."]
 
[Posted in FML issue 0387]