I have setting in a bowl of No.  12 steel shot the reconstructed fragments
of a polecat skull.  Beside the skull are several long bones, all broken
when the unfortunate animal was killed.  They are also being repaired.  But
as I look at the thickness and robustness of the bone, I have to wonder why
they are so different from domesticated ferret bones.  And they are, if you
look carefully enough.  Excluding the muscle scars, they are not really
different in terms of basic shape or size.  In fact, if you went by those
criteria alone, the bones would be considered identical.  The major
differences are in the thickness and density of the bone.  You might
suggest part of this could be due to changes due to domestication, but I
have ruled that out by looking at bones from feral ferrets.  You might
suggest the differences are due to changes caused by neutering, and you
would be partially correct, but not enough to account for all the changes.
I think much of the difference is simply due to quality of diet.
 
What is a proper, balanced diet for a ferret?  Well, just a few years ago, a
paper was published in which it was admitted the proper diet for ferrets was
yet to be determined.  Does that mean the makers of commercially available
ferret foods are pulling the wool over your eyes?  You tell me.  Lets face
it; scientists have been investing a lot of time and money to study human
diets, not to mention dog, cat, cattle, etc., and we are still a long way
from understanding it despite a century or more of investigation.  Ferrets
have only had that sort of dietary sluthing for the last few years, and most
of that remains unpublished.  Do you think the knowledge base for ferret
diets equals that of dogs or people?
 
The optimal diet is that which the animal evolved eating, because it will
provide the proper percentages of nutrients and roughage for the animal.
Translated, the perfect diet for ferrets would be that which is being
consumed by wild polecats living in their ancestral European homes.  It
would include frogs, toads, mice, rats, voles, rabbits, birds, insects,
berries and carrion, all eaten hide, hair, bone and toenails.  But those are
kind of hard to keep stocked in your pantry, so most people opt for
commercially available foods with a slightly longer shelf life.  These foods
include tinned meat products, moist formed foods (cakes) and dried kibble
(biscuits).
 
Tinned meat products appear on the surface to be more "natural" in texture
and form, but that is not always the case.  What often looks like a chunk of
beef can actually be a mixture of meat byproducts and vegetable flours,
formed and textured to look like the real thing, and disguised by thick
gravy.  Dehydrate the "beef chunk" a bit and you have a moist cake; even
more (after fluffing it up a bit with air) and you have kibble.  Here's a
tip; if it doesn't *SAY* that it is chunks of sirloin, it isn't.  Oh yeah,
"by-products" are the left-overs when a carcass is stripped of the parts
suitable for human consumption.  This is the stuff that is left over after
the "left-overs" are stripped to make hotdogs.  So, "beef by-products" does
not necessarily mean you are getting a quality beef product at all.
 
These are convenience foods.  They don't smell bad, they can be stored for
long periods of time, and they are acceptable for the little carpet monkeys,
who, once olfactory-imprinted on them, snarf them down with the same gusto a
polecat usually reserves for a fat froggie.  They generally have acceptable
amounts of protein and fat, and most have been heated to a degree that they
no longer harbor bacteria.  Most are acceptable replacements for a natural
diet, with exceptions (If I use the word natural in this discussion, I am
refering to the wild polecat diet, not necessarily something from a
natural-foods store.)
 
Since the Plio-Pleistocene (millions of years ago), polecats have been
eating pretty much the same stuff, which really didn't differ much from what
their ancestors was eating.  Then some big hairless apes marched in a few
thousands years ago and domesticated a group of these polecats, renaming
them ferrets.  But even so, for most of that time, the ferrets ate about the
same stuff as the polecats; well, maybe more rabbits, but still fresh meat
for the most part.  Then, a score of years ago, Purina thought it could turn
a profit selling commercial ferret food to those animal labs housing
ferrets, and a new business was born.
 
Today, about a half dozen or so companies make ferret foods, and almost all
of them are kibbled.  All claim they offer a complete and balanced diet
(defined by the government and may not actually be an aptimal diet at all).
These foods also reflect ferret owner criteria, such as a pleasant odor, or
specific shapes and colors.  (Do you actually think a color-blind ferret
*cares* what color the kibble is?  Its colored for people, not ferrets).  To
make the kibble more appealing to the ferret, often small amounts of sugar
or salt are added because most mammals crave them.
 
I have a quiz.  You look on the package and see the kibble is 35% protein
and 15% fat.  Looking at the ingredient list, you notice the first
ingredient is "poultry meat/byproducts," followed by "corn meal" and a half
dozen of other things.  Is this a good food?  Well, what if the poultry was
only 20% of the total, with corn meal 18% and the other non-meat products
individually below 18%, but together totaling 62%?  Now is it good?
Manufacturers are required to provide a rank ordering of ingredients, but
they are not required to tell you what percentage of the total those items
represent.  So a kibble could actually be 80% rice, corn, wheat and soy
meals, but still list a meat as the first ingredient.  Even worse, the
protein content includes all protein from all sources, so seeing meat as
the first ingredient, and a score of 35% for protein implies the protien is
from the meat.  Not necessarily true.  It could be only 15% comes from meat
and the rest comes from soy/corn/rice meal.  Tip two: unless it specifically
says 35% protein from beef or poultry, it won't be.  You can do a lot of
lying with "truth in packaging."
 
Bob C and 20 MO Raisin Stalkin' Carpet Sharks
[Posted in FML issue 2308]