Hi to all you wonderful fmler's that are concerned for your fuzzies nutritional needs.My wife and Irun a very large shelter in Colorado that saw almost 2000 ferrets come to our shelter in 1999. That is double the year before. We have tried every food on the market, especially in the shelters younger years when we couldn't afford to feed the kids unless friends or clients would drop a bag of whatever. We had a barrel (55 gal) filled with mixed food eventually and always was throwing a bag of this and that in it. One time we had almost 100 ferrets in the shelter at one time and almost every one of them had runny stools. Our vet bills for flagyl and amox were killing us and we used more Pepto Bismal than a country chili cookout. We later found out it was because our beloved fuzzies tummies were upset all the time from a scoop of this one day and a scoop of that the next day. No consistent diet. We found out, among the many things we've learned here, that most adult ferrets won't just readily change their diet. Some will quit eating to the point of starvation or worse, ulcers of the intestinal tract, which are hard to cure and costly. Yes , we did lose a lot of our beloved fuzzies that way. One day, someone donated 5- 30 # bags of Totally Ferret to us. Can't remember who it was, but it was heaven sent for sure. DISCLAIMER: we do not work for Performance Foods Inc. nor do we get paid for saying good things about their products. Our shelter is divided into 3 sections... intake, community room and sick room. It is set up this way to segregate and prevent diseases from wiping out the whole shelter. We used Totally ferret for the first time in our sick room and watched lids who had been sick for weeks and months, get well in 1-2 weeks. ferrets who had been getting hand fed and had no hair and just a myriad of other problems were getting better. We moved to using the food in the community room where most of the adoptable kids were and we kept our biter program kids and in two weeks saw new coats and body weights and mass increasing. Yes we document everything here on a daily basis. We started asking all of our surrenders what kind of food they were feeding their ferrets and tested all strays for different food preferences. Once the strays were stabilized with a food they would eat. we started gradually mixing their food with Totally Ferret. Today, year 2000, all ferrets who cross our threshold are switched to Totally Ferret. ALL!!! Our advice... Totally Ferret. When we weighed the cost in money, time and tears that mixing foods had caused us and the high cost of Totally Ferret, we decided that we would find a way to feed our kids the best. Last year, we switched well over 2000 ferrets to Totally Ferret. There are those who would try to tell us their ferret would not eat it. They are n't taking the time to be patient and let their ferrets system decide which is best It is highly palatable and once they decide to try it, they will eat it. Their health will change for the better. We require that all ferrets that leave our shelter eat Totally Ferret for the rest of their lives. Prospective parents who balk at our contract which legally binds them to this agreement, are denied adoption immmediately and told to go somewhere else and get a pet. They are also placed in our computer as undesirable clients. To all you shelter moms and dads who feel you can't afford Totally Ferret either ... Please call me at 303-343-6460 or call Jeff at Performance Foods at 303-410-1101. I am sure Jeff won't mind me giving out his number at work! If you are a legitimate shelter, they will work with you to help you afford the food so you can afford to use it without getting in over your head. It provides a consistent food source and a healthy one for all the ferrets in your community. And it helps build credibility with the local pet stores and vets if they know you use it and demand your clients use it. We require all the vets on our website that are great with ferrets to stock it if they want our referrals, (thousands per year) We have the local stores (small pet stores) stock TF and we post them on our web site too! We help any one who wants to sell TF keep a client base using it by helping promote them in our literature , school presentations, and website. We are in the rescue, shelter and education business, and even though we sell some food here out of the shelter to help raise money for the kids, we would rather help those businesse that make it their business to sell pet products succeed at what they do so we can concentrate on what we do best....save as many fuzzies as we can. When the dust settles in our community, we hope the health and goodwill we have generated through the distribution of TF throughout our region will create a lesser need for our services. BIG, this is not a promotion and hope this does not violate your gudelines. I do promise that this product delivers the best in nutrition, in our experience and opinion, for the fuuzies who we all love dearly. I currently have 93 of my best friends residing here at Especially Ferrets Inc. Most of them are waiting for the wonderful family that I have personally promised them to come and take them home someday. The others, (15), all permanent residents, range from 2 yrs to 12 yrs. We have 2-- 12 yrs olds and a ten yrs old that roam the shelter and say hi to all the new kids we recieve every day here and letting them know that things will be alright. They all love their Totally Ferret food. I sincerely hope you will post this. nuff said! ferretguy [Posted in FML issue 2994]