The babies are doing great; there is only the occasional tarry stool, and
all are playing again.  I do believe the danger is over.  Retested everyone,
with more startled looks and bugged-out eyes, and the cultures will be ready
to read tomorrow.  Wish them luck.
 
Q: Can domesticated ferrets breed with black footed ferrets?
 
A: Sure, but only in enlightened countries.
 
They can breed, but nothing comes out of it.  The domestic ferret has 40
chromosomes, and the BFF has 38.  The BFF can easily breed with the steppe
polecat, and have viable and fertile young, but no evidence exists that
either can successful bred with the ferret.  There is a book detailing
interspecies breeding, and some attempts had been made, but in lab
conditions, and were ultimately unsuccessful.
 
Q: What you you think of the "Great Food Debate?"
 
A: I love tacos smothered in guacamole.  (I wanted to crack, "Cats: The
other white meat" but was afraid of the Pro-cat lobby)
 
It is extremely important to realize that only *minor* differences exist in
the molecular makeup of muscle tissues between species.  In other words, as
far as the digestive organs are concerned, muscle is muscle is muscle.  Some
muscle is better at sustained work (like your heart) and other muscle is
better at rapid and hard work (like running away from the Ca Ca Fish and
Gestapo).  But, your stomach sees them about the same way.  Not necessarily
so with fats, because they have the ability to store vitamins and other
stuff that bodies require.  The fat from one species may be richer in
vitamin D, while another species's fat may be loaded with vitamin B or A.
These fat soluable vitamins pose a danger; if too many are taken in, the
body can be poisoned.  Species adapt in several ways, most notably by
decreasing their own production of the substance, finding some metabolic way
of handling the excess, or a combination of both.  You will discover this
yourself if you eat seal or shark liver.
 
Anyway, the differences between the biochemistry of muscle tissues are
minor, and essentially unimportant, but the differences between fats has the
potiential of being *very* important, not due to the structure of the fat,
but the substances they may contain.  I short, the major difference between
types of food animals is in the proportions of muscle mass to fat mass, and
the kinds of stuff in the fat.
 
Why is this important?  Because an animal that evolved eating animals of
specific fat/muscle proportions has 1) a gut that reflects that evolutionary
relationship, 2) has gut motility that reflects that relationship, 3) has
specific requirements for essential amino and fatty acids that refelct that
relationship, and 4) has enzymes that reflect that relationship.  (Oh, I
know I could list at least ten other things, such as teeth, behavior, etc.,
but space and boredom...)
 
Many argue that since protein is important, and protein is protein, animals
can eat vegetable proteins and get along fine.  They can *IF* they have a
gut that allows the food to be in the body for the proper length of time,
and if they make the proper enzymes to break the food down.  Cooking is an
artifical way to do this, but is limited in scope for some carnivores,
especially ferrets.  The practice of eating fruit (and to a lesser degree,
nuts) may or may not be prove the ability to eat plants; they may be
consumed for carbohydrates, and the undigestible proteins pass right on
through.
 
Sometimes cats are compared to ferrets.  Is it valid?  What do the bodies of
the two predators say?  Cats have a longer bowel, and the large intestine is
easily distinquished from the small intestine.  They have a caecum at that
juncture, they have a much longer transit time for food to leave the body,
and they possess several enzymes that ferrets do not.  Ferrets have no
caecum, you cannot visually tell the end of the small intestine from the
beginning of the large, and they have a very short transit time for food.
Mink are also compared to ferrets, and this comparison is just as faulty for
the same reasons.  Basically, if you want to draw an analogy, then you have
to first prove a close relationship.  Sure, ferrets and mink are closer
related than cats and ferrets, but they hunt different food as well.  Think
about it.  If ferrets, mink and cats can live in the same areas, and in some
parts of Europe they do, they can't be eating the exact same foods;
something must be different.
 
You don't need to know _what_ the differences are between a mink's, a cat's
and a ferret's diet; all you need to know is that differences do exist, and
they reflect different needs.  For example, a cat and a ferret may both eat
small rodents, which _sounds_ as if they eat the same thing.  But the cat
may eat more rats, and the ferret more voles, and differences in fat and
vitamins, and fat-to-muscle contents between the two species can
potientually be significant.  Evolutionarly significant.
 
The absolute best diet for any animal is that which it evolved to eat.  But
I have neither the facilities nor the heart to feed my beasties live voles
and rabbits, insects, fish and crustaceans, frogs, and whatever else they
find in the wilds of Europe.  So I compromise and choose the best foods
available.  Not one commerically available food is perfect; they all have
limitations of one type or another (Prove they DON'T!).  I have chosen to
maximize the benefits and minimize the problems buy feeding my ferrets some
of each.  I mix together every high quality food I can find.  I care less if
it was made for a ferret or a cat, because I haven't been convinced _ANY_
food fulfills the ferret's particular evolutionary needs (yes, I have read
all about the various ferret chows, and no, I am still not convinced because
they were based on studies of lab animals and not wild nor domile-living
animals, but that's another story).
 
Hey, if the protein/fat proportions are right, the plant parts are low on
the list, and the food is made by a reputable firm, it's good.  You can
quibble over antioxidants, food colorings, or corn vs rice, but Mr.
Digestive Tract sees little difference between beef vs lamb, or even
poultry.  The advantages of my special mix is if one part is unavailable,
the ferrets don't seem to notice or care.  I can throw in new stuff, and it
is readily accepted.  To me, the argument is similar to the one I had with
my brother.  He said the best vehicle for a trip we wanted to take was a
white suburban.  I said no, it would be a red suburban.  Ferret food, cat
food, hell, even monkey food would be ok if the fat/protein mix was proper,
and the stuff was not made from plants.  Screw the hype, read the
ingrediants, and for God's sake, play with the little monkeys.  Blink once,
and they are gone.
 
Mo' Bob and the 18 Ronco Poop-O-Matics (Formerly with Gus)
[Posted in FML issue 1707]