Leigh Whitaker wrote:
 
>>A note here...ferrets imprint on foods at a young age and after they
>>grow older, it is almost impossible to change foods.  They will starve
 
>>themselves to death.
>
>This is just not true.  It may be true for SOME (I'd say few) ferrets,
>but I, and I'm sure others on this list, have personally had experience
>switiching older ferrets to different foods.  The reason I feel obligated
>to reply to this is because I often hear people use this argument as an
>excuse for not trying to switch their ferrets from a low qual.  cat food
>to a higher quality food.
 
Leigh, I think it is true for MOST ferrets, not few.  Yes, if one is
willing to spend a month or so, mixing foods, doing the blends, you can
get most ferrets to switch foods.  However, it isn't as easy, in most
cases, at your post would let readers to believe.  We are dealing with
people that wouldn't think to blend and grind or deceive a ferret into
eating a new food.  They are given a ferret or buy an older ferret from
a pet store or get a ferret from the pound and then watch as the fuzzy
wastes away from starvation because no one knows what food it likes.  If
the people are lucky enough to find the FML or one of the many lists on
ferrets and ask, they will be helped, but very very few ever find out
what killed their ferrets.
 
I will say this, I think where the ferret comes from has a lot to do
with food imprinting and eating habits.  I have noticed that New Zealand
ferrets seem to be less food imprinted than my American bred ferrets.
But, they too can be picky.  Bancho would carefully pick out all the
Mazuri and leave it on the floor of the cage.  When I tried ZuPreem, it
would end up on the cage floor, uneaten and in a pile, well away from the
food dish.  Never could get any of my business to eat ZuPreem.  I know
Bancho never had Totally Ferret and he took to that instantly.
 
Carla Almaraz wrote:
>Mazuri is what is called a "least cost" formula.  Least cost means that
>the product is made with whatever ingredients will cost the least to
>produce the guaranteed analysis.  This guaranteed analysis and the exact
>composition of the product is identified by a tag that is sewn onto the
>pull string of the bag.  By attaching the label in this manner, the label
>can be easily changed as the composition of the food changes.  One batch
>may be different from the next.
 
Carla, I think someone has fed you a line of horse hockey.  I may well be
wrong and I am sure that the good readers of the FML will step up and let
me (us) know if I am.  Common sense tells me what you have been told is
either wrong or misleading.  If you change the diet (the formula) of most
carnivore animals, the animal whose diet has been changed will get
diarrhea.  (Remember the last time you tried to feed your dog that new
food you got on special at the supermarket?) qA feed producer cannot have
this happen or they will be out of business...no one will buy their foods!
So..again, economics dictates a constant in the manufacture and
formulation of a feed product like Mazuri or TF, or ZuPreem, etc.
 
IN all the years I have been feeding Mazuri (10 years now), I have never
seen the ingredient list change in any way.  And, if one thinks about it,
who cares what the composition of the food is if the guaranteed analysis
is always met?  If the ingredient list never changes and the order in
which it appears on the label never changes, then the formula of the feed
is relatively the same, from batch to batch.
 
Regarding an attached label vs. a printed bag label
Purina has ALWAYS used separate labels, sewn to the bag on their
commercial animal food products, be it for horses, cows, pigs, hamsters,
ferrets, mice, rats, etc.  (Mazuri is a commercial feed) I used to buy my
Mazuri here in Reno directly from the mill before they had PMI market it
out of Brentwood, MO.  and know they always used attached tags rather than
a printed bag.  Use of the tags means they save printing costs of the bag
the food is shipped in.  To you and me, a penny or two saved per bag means
nothing, but to a feed manufacturer, a penny or two a bag, multiplied by
500,000, starts to add up to a sizable savings.
 
Carla, what you say sounds good, but I suspect that all feed manufacturers
do the same thing, adjust their ingredient content to meet the minimum
analysis of their individual product.  I 'think' that is required by law
actually...It is equally as bad for feed to vastly exceed the minimum
label standards as well.  But, unless any of the particulars on the label
regarding order of ingredients or percentages of ingredients changes, the
feed is basically always the same.
 
MC. The Rude One
(With Snorkle, Tuzigoot, and Bancho.  In spirit, Bubba, Billy-Bob, and
Garret)
[Posted in FML issue 3111]