Dear Mr. Lipinski, I am posting this rebuttal to your feeding post so that all who read it will not be as misinformed as you would like them to be. My source of information has a PHD in animal nutrition vs. your PHD in BS. Firstly, a ferrets metabolism is so fast(3-3 1/2 hours from one end to the other) it does not have the time it takes to break down and metabolize plant matter( fruits and vegetables), which normally takes 4-6 hours in most warm blooded species. Furthermore, ferrets do not have a caecum, which is designed in most animals for capturing and breaking down plant matter into product that could be assimilated. Secondly, feeding your ferrets chunks of meats with the bone in is putting your ferrets at risk to esposure to salmonella and listeria and laceration or punturesd to the trachea and esophagus. Cooking the meat will elimate the bacterial exposure but harden the bone and increase the risk of wounds to the trahea and esophagus. If your reply to this is they eat bone in the wild, sure they do, but unless you are feeding them SMALL animal bones, which they can easily crush and digest, you are putting them at risk. Thirdly, raw or cooked meat, unless you are feeding them the whole animal is lacking in calcium and phosphorous and a diet of meat will cause a deficiency in calcium and phosphorous. To supplement that loss brings us to another subject, how much and when? Fourth subject of my concern is dental health. A good food for your ferret will have a consistency that is neither too hard or too soft so the eating it wil keep the teeth and gums clean and healthy. Lastly, Mr. Lipinski, I personally handle more ferrets in one year than you may have the opportunity to see in the next ten years. When you insinuate that us shelter operators are feeding our ferrets wrong and yours is the best way, I can only say you are entitled to say whatever you want, but spreading the kind of info that you are is detrimental to those who just take your word for the truth. I prefer to let the pros make my food and the products I use for my ferrets, as I already have too many things to do, as I'm sure that many other shelter operators are busy also. [Posted in FML issue 3050]