Q: "I gave your egg white references to the [person]...and was told they didn't specifically mention ferrets so they had little value....Any more suggestions" A: Tell the person to forget about trading internet porn passwords and set their ass in a comparative physiology class. <sigh> Ok, more references: 1) T. Brody 1994 "Nutritional Biochemistry." Academic Press; San Diego. 2) J. C. Arinze and S.P. Mistry 1971 Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology 38B:285-294. 3) D. Balnave 1977 "Clinical Symptoms of biotin deficiency in animals." American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 30:1408-1413. 4) C.J. Casey and J. G. Morris 1977 "Biotin deficiency in the cat and the effect on hepatic propionyl CoA carboxylase." Journal of Nutrition 107:330-334. 5) K. Dakshinamurti and J. Chauhan 1989 "Biotin." Vitamins and Hormones 45:337-397. If you are looking for a reference which SPECIFICALLY says consumption of avidin in raw eggs will bind with the FERRET's biotin, there are not many that the average person would be able to easily obtain. BUT IT DOESN'T MATTER because avidin, regardless of the source, tightly binds with biotin, regardless of the species. It is a biochemical reaction which is independent of the animal. Now, there might be an animal that has evolved some type of adaptation allowing it to eat raw eggs without producing a biotin deficiency, but the ferret is not one of them. In this instance, regardless if the raw egg white consumer is a cat, rat, human, mink, dog, or ferret, the consumption of raw egg whites cause a biotin deficiency resulting in the symptoms I described in the egg white post. Q: "My boyfriend killed a huge elk last season...is it ok to feed chunks of elk to ferrets?" A: Better than chunks of distal phalange. Never give a ferret the finger. Did you know carnivores fed a 100% meat diet develop serious bone problems, like osteomalacia and rickets? The reason is the meat contains such low levels of calcium compared to phosphates that it throws of the calcium/phosphate ratio in the blood. A high protein diet can result in calcium and phosphate levels WORSE than what would expected from meat alone. For some reason not yet completely understood, the sulfates in the proteins may be binding to the calcium, resulting in both being eliminated in the urine. Since this causes a leaching of calcium from the bone to maintain the proper blood Ca/PO4 ratio, an all-meat (high protein) diet can actually cause the animal to piss away their bones or form the improperly. This is not a problem with whole carcasses, because the ferret gets extra calcium from eating bits of ingested bone, and ingests substances which counteract the loss of calcium, such as fatty acids and trace elements. Supplementing the diet with calcium helps. I add egg shells to Bob's Chicken Gravy because the calcium carbonate in eggshell is easier to absorb compared to the calcium phosphate in bone. The chickens you buy in stores are generally very young and have bones which are not as well calcified as in adults. Some people worry that high calcium levels can cause stones, but that is a myth; studies have shown that in healthy animals, LOW calcium levels are more of a risk, especially in the presence of other compounds. The bottom line is, it is ok to feed a ferret chunks of elk (if they will eat them; start young to avoid imprinting problems), provided one of two criteria are met. 1) The diet is occasional and the ferret normally eats lots of well balanced foods, or 2) you salt the diet with a good vitamin supplement or calcium. Bob C and 16 Mo' Cervus Mo' Elk [Posted in FML issue 3026]