The problem with kibble is that some components can be cooked several times.
Take "poultry by-product meal" as an example.  We know what poutry
by-products are, but the term meal is reserved for dried and ground items.
What they do is grind up the various poultry by-products to a fine paste,
heat it to kill the bacteria, then dry it to a meal for shipment to the pet
food maker.  The pet food maker will mix all the ingredients, cook them to
kill bacteria, and then extrude the paste like cookie batter, cutting off
chunks of future kibble.  These chunks are then baked to create the hard
kibble we all know and love.  But the poultry by-products have been heated
at least 3 times.  This is not good for those heat sensitive proteins and
lipids carnivores crave and require, which is why so many additives are at
the end of the ingrediant list.
 
The end result of all this processing is a uniform, artifically colored,
hard biscuit.  Some are brown, some are colored different colors for
different "flavors."  Some are cross-shaped, some are formed into triangles
or ovals or cherrios.  Some look like rabbit pellets.  But all are the same
in that they are made from the finest second-hand materials the low bids
will buy.  They are an artifical food, they are a cheap food, they are
perhaps even an unhealthy food, but they sure are convienient.  And for
most ferrets in the USA, it is the only food they will ever experience.
 
Every pet owner should be required to spend an entire month by themselves in
an empty room, eating the exact same food for every meal, and once a day,
for a few moments, someone comes in to talk to them.  There is a window so
you can watch others walking around, doing things and having fun, but they
ignore you.  The toilet is next to the bed; it doesn't flush but is emptied
every few days.  The room is small and you can walk back and forth, but you
have no room for the type of exercise that preserves physical fitness.  All
you have is a single book, which you have read over and over until you have
become sick of it.  If that happens to POWs or criminals, it is called cruel
and unusual punishment, and is illegal by USA and international standards.
Yet it is typical of living conditions experienced by ferrets (and other
pets) every day.  You see it in pet shops, in shelters, and even in
ferret-loving homes.
 
The diet never varies.  It is the same thing, day in and day out.  Week
after week, month after month, year after year, the same brown kibble.
Soon, the ferrets are brainwashed (ok, olfactory imprinted) into thinking
this is the only food they can eat, and will not accept any other.  After
seeing hundreds of ferrets on this sort of diet, I can tell you they are
flabby.  Not fat, just very poor muscle tone.  Lots of them come down with
gastrointestial problems, they are susceptable to ECE, to ulcers, to
insuloma and perhaps even adrenal disease.  They act bored, and do not have
a long activity period, even when allowed to run free.  They mostly eat and
sleep, with the occasional wandering around the room period.
 
Remember the diet of the European polecat?  It is not much different from
most others of the weasel family, and includes such delectible sops as
toads, frogs, mice, rats, voles, rabbits, birds, lizards, fish, insects,
berries, and of course that old favorite, road-kill carrion.  From one day
to the next, the polecat never really knows what it will find to eat, and
because one day it might find a baby chick kicked out of its nest by its
sibling and the next day find a toad, the diet tends to be variable.  That's
the case in generalist predators such as polecats and ferrets, and their
evolutionary design reflects it.  They have long teeth to crush the
brainstem or dislocate the spinal cord, depending on the size of the prey.
They have fast-growing and long claws to dig hibernating frogs and toads out
of semi-frozen ground or to hang on so the rabbit doesn't slice their belly
to shreads.  They have a nose that can sniff out prey as good or better than
the best bloodhounds, and can precisely locate food in burrows, under leaves
or even buried under dirt.  And they have a curiosity that doesn't quit,
because if you are an opportunistic predator using your nose to find things,
then you have be ready to search everywhere to find enough to eat.  The
polecat is a superb generalist predator.
 
So consider the physiological ramifications of eating a varied diet for
millions of years, then suddening subjecting your intestines to a single
type of diet all the time.  The one good thing about kibble is that it is
consistent from batch to batch, which is also the one bad thing.  Uniformity
might be good for the pocketbook or the time schedule, but it has been shown
to have some pretty nasty side effects as well.  It can contribute to an
overall lack of gastrointestinal vigor, might be associated with abnormal
growths or cancers (nothing I know that is proven in the ferret, but
demonstrated in a host of other mammals, including humans), and clearly
contributes to the ferret's overall boredom.
 
Consider what is going through the stomach and intestines when a ferret eats
a mouse.  A bolus of hair, bone, muscle tissue, "by-products," digesta, and
glands enters the stomach, where it is mixed with HCl, a very strong acid.
This acid starts breaking apart the various components, even disolving away
the bone (once bone gets to a healthy carnivore's stomach, it loses its
sharp edges, becoming rounded, smooth, even polished by the acid and
harmlessly passes through the digestive tract).  When everything is mixed
together, this very acidic mixture is squirted into the first part of the
intestine, the duodeum.  The gallbladder and the pancreas dump their juices
into the mix, neutralizing the bolus so it won't burn ulcers into the
tissue.  This food bolus now proceeds down the intestines, all the while it
is being deconstructed by various enzymes.  By the time it reaches the
bowel, whatever nutrients that will be absorbed have been.
 
Consider that bolus--containing fur, bits of bone and other bulk or
roughage--and the effects it has on the internal intestinal structure.
It helps to scrub it clean, helping to eliminate digestive toxins.  Now
consider a bolus without hair or bone.  If you want to know what kibble
looks like as a bolus, just put a few pieces in your palm, spit on them and
rub it around until they disolve.  Which of the two would do a better job
cleaning out the intestines?  Roughage or paste?
 
Bob C and 20 MO Chuckling Carnivores
[Posted in FML issue 2312]