Q: "...What did they feed ferrets raised on ferrets farms before kibble?" A: I'm pretty sure it was those annoying small, fluffy, nipping, always barking dogs, especially those wearing cute clothing. There are three basic sources of information regarding early ferret diets; "common knowledge," and indirect historical and direct historical information. "Common knowledge" is a jumble of "they saids" and cultural beliefs on the subject. It is not to be trusted, although it can be used to confirm public awareness on specific subjects. For example, "common knowledge" suggests ferrets rip the faces off babies prior to killing and consuming them, yet only two infants have ever died of ferret attacks and neither incident excluded the possibility that dogs were involved. The "common knowledge" regarding ferret diets was that ferrets thrived upon milky sops; that is, cooked grains and milk. The grains could be in the form of bread, or they could be cooked cereals, like porridge. This "common knowledge" was widespread, especially in Britain where it was considered a common food of choice for ferrets, especially for those owned by members of the lower economic classes. Indirect historical information is that which is extrapolated from sources which do not directly address the issue. One such method is to excavate a ferret farm and look to see if you can find physical evidence of ferret diet, such as bones or the like. However, just because you find a bone, it doesn't mean the ferrets ate the meat. This is circumstantial evidence at best. Another method is to carefully read the older literature, paying special attention to the advertisements. For example, in a turn of the century Farmer's Journal, I found an ad for a ferret farm which said, "Old Horses! We use them as feed for the Ferrets!" Since the ad could be misleading and the horses used for glue or to feed other animals, it is not direct historical evidence. In other words, just because someone SAYS something is true, it doesn't mean it is so. The farmer might have wanted to feed dead horses to dogs but wanted to devalue the meat to buy it cheaper. It is good evidence, but it is not a direct link. Direct historical information are recipes, feeding logs, books which discuss diet, that sort of thing. Published accounts of diet are pretty good evidence that such a diet was being consumed. For example, suppose someone a thousand years in the future saw my Chicken Gravy recipe. The recipe alone is good evidence we fed chicken to ferrets, but even stronger would be the descriptions of how to make and modify it, and its benefits. The more people who mention it, the better the chance of it actually being used as stated. Of course, the BEST evidence comes straight from the ferret. You can either look at the coprolites (old feces) and test them for DNA, immunoproteins, fur, bones, etc., OR, you can test the ferret remains for specific isotopes which would prove which type of diet was fed to them. Bones don't lie. For our purposes, old advertisements and ferret books are probably good enough to figure out ferret diets from the good old days. I have looked through 54 older ferret books dating between 1870s-1970s and the food choice by far is rodents, birds, animal carcasses and chunks of meat, including horse and rabbit. Almost ALL the books dismiss the use of grain and milk diets as bad for the ferrets, (although by simply mentioning them, it is evidence such diets were offered by some people). Several books indicate corn based products were "deadly" to the ferret. All in all, using evidence gleaned from old ads and books, the most common diet for ferrets was fresh meat and animal carcasses, with horse meat and poultry remains the most recommended. I don't know when kibble was first used as ferret food, but it was mostly popular to feed laboratory animals after W.W.II. It never seemed to be very common outside that context until the mid 1970s when ferrets became popular as pets. Although the "milk and bread" diet is commonly thought of as popular a century ago, if the literature is any guide, it was NEVER popular with the majority of breeders who clearly made their preferences known as "meat." Bob C and 16 Mo' Direct Historical Ankle Nippers [Posted in FML issue 3020]