Providing the proper diet for ferrets, one that is both complete and balanced specifically for ferrets, is one of the most important jobs we undertake as ferret owners. As a shelter director, I receive questions almost daily regarding what to feed and proper diet/nutrition for ferrets. Because some ferret owners feed Eukanuba and Iams cat and kitten foods to their ferrets, recent changes in the formulation of these foods has sparked even more questions in the minds of some. Some of these questions I presented to Dr. Tom Willard. I thought that all of you would like to read his reply to me. I have his permission to post his letter... Subj: Totally Ferret as compared to Iams or Euk cat food Dear Trish: In regard to your questions last week concerning Totally Ferrets nutritional background and the questions regarding the Iams cat foods. As you are aware there has been a great deal of emailing in recent weeks regarding Iams and what they may or may not do with their formulas. I wanted to respond to your questions and comments as they are pertinent and representative of questions we receive daily on our web site and calls to our CS dept. Most companies will not ever say they are "changing" a formula. These words not only strike fear in the hearts of the pet food companies but also the consumer's. All major public and most private pet food companies will "test" all changes they make before putting the new formula on the market. Iams has a rather large and very modern research facility where they test their foods on their "dogs and cats." I emphasize "dog and cats" because they do not test any of their food on ferrets since they have no ferret food. This is an important fact that everyone reading FML needs to grasp and understand. Iams, like all reputable pet food companies, do make changes from time to time as the ingredient market and other factors change. Most companies feed the new formulas or formulas with changes in ingredients to their research animals for a period of time. Generally, they will check the change for palatability, digestibility, manufacturing efficiency or any other area that will impact the finished product. Changes such as adding more chicken or less chicken, or more corn and less rice are examples of changes in which a company would conduct feeding test on their products. These changes almost always will effect the cost. Which means most changes are made to decrease cost while "maintaining quality at or above the current level." This is a big challenge, because "maintaining" usually means within statistical parameters. In theory, this is sound because short term, with "changes" made within statistical parameters, there is little if any recognizable animal or visual differences. However, over a one to three year period there may be more recognizable differences because during this period there may be several "changes" or "enhancements." These changes may impact the palatability as well as the nutrition. As a nutritionist, this is my major concern when people ask me if I think Iams will change their formulas. Ferret owners need to realize that any changes being made by companies which only manufacture dog and cat foods are only going to test these changed foods on either cats and dogs and they are leaving any testing to the individual ferret owners. Remember also, that ferrets are more of an obligate carnivore than cats so even if an apparent "minor" change is made on the cat food, it may have "major" impact on the ferret. Unfortunately, your ferret nor you may know of a problem until it is a problem and your ferret gets sick or becomes unthrift looking or develops a deficiency. So, when Iams or any other company says they have "enhanced" their food it does not necessarily mean it is "enhanced" for ferrets. There are other nutrients besides protein, fat and fiber one must consider when evaluating foods for their ferrets. Ferrets require different levels of most vitamins, some minerals and amino acids than cats and "enhancements," will not be tested on ferrets, so major problems could easily develop for ferrets being fed this cat food. The other question you had was regarding the level of chicken in the Iams Eukanuba cat and kitten food. "Chicken," as used in the pet food industry is not exactly what you may think it is. "Chicken" as defined for pet foods (AAFCO definition. Which is the official publication regulating the pet food industry.), comes from the processing of fresh chicken for human consumption. It is some muscle meat and soft connective tissue remaining on the frame of a chicken (broiler) after it has been filleted. It is not whole breast, thighs, and legs as they may want you to believe. The connective tissue makes up the majority of the "chicken" and is not as good nutritionally as the muscle meat. This means it is lower in digestibility and palatability than regular human grade chicken. The second factor you need to be aware of, is that this "chicken" meat is about 68% water. So, for every pound of "chicken" added to a formula, there is only about 1/3 pound of meat added. The regulations allows a company to list the ingredients by the raw weight or "wet" weight as opposed to actual "dry" weight. Therefore, when a food has chicken meal or chicken by product meal listed as the first ingredient, it has about three times more chicken protein than one which has chicken as the first or second ingredient combined. This is neither illegal nor unethical, it is the regulation. However, it may be misleading as far as the average consumers is concerned. In light of the two points above, please consider this when selecting a "premium" cat food as your food for your ferret. Totally Ferret, has always fed and proven its foods on ferrets, not cats. Totally Ferret is the ONLY company that has tested, proven and presented their data at three national veterinarian conferences regarding its nutritional completeness. No change has ever been made that was not researched and tested on ferrets first and shown to be better, not statically equal. We have never tested Totally Ferret on cats nor will we, because Totally Ferret is for ferrets, not cats. Ferrets are significantly different from cats in looks, in physiology, in organoleptic properties, and most importantly, nutritionally. So, before you blindly accept any cat food for your ferrets based on what is on the bag please go the next step and ask the manufacturer if they guarantee the food is 100% nutritional balanced and complete for ferrets of all life stages. If not, how can they say it is OK to feed to ferrets? DR Tom Willard President Performance Foods, Inc. ------------- Feel free to email me if anyone has further question, I'll try to help. Trish Director, Ferrets First Rescue & Shelter [Posted in FML issue 3003]