Hi Sadie >Sorry, I forgot to add this to my last post. When you feed animals meat >you can cook it but when you do it kills off all the beneficial enzymes. >The enzymes are essential for maintaining a healthy immune system. I don't know about the immune system, but (digestive) enzymes help digest food. All foods come with enzymes that are needed to digest that food and cooking destroys the enzymes as you said. I'm supplementing my guy's raw diet with an enzyme supplement at the moment, it helps them digest the food better. They'd been on kibble for so long that the older ferrets had a few problems switching over and had the odd loose stool. With the enzymes they don't have that problem anymore. Enzymes also help to get the most out of a food. >You can buy enzymes in a powdered form to supplement an animals cooked >diet (similar, I assume to human acidophilus) but raw meat is always the >best source for this. Acidophilus is a probiotic supplement. Many people give it to animals that are fed a raw diet. You got to use the non-dairy one that is stored in the fridge at health food shops. Acidophilus is one of the good bugs (no Lynn, that doesn't include lady bugs and such... ;-) ) that is found in the intestines. >I buy meat four pounds at a time from the bucher and have it wrapped in >half pound packages then I freeze most of it (which I've been told doesn't >affect the enzymes) and defrost it as needed. You talk about meat here, hope you feed bones as well? Or at least supplement with bonemeal or calcium supplement? Even though bones are best... I get enough chickens to last a week and grind them in one go and freeze the ground meat in portions. Best wishes from Ulrike and Jilly, Jack, Bella, Tom, Mason, Baby, Dana, Fox, Reno, Rose, Jasmine, Barney and Spike Missing Angel, Hope and Igor West Wales Ferret Welfare E-mail: [log in to unmask] http://www.ferretlove.freeserve.co.uk Last update 20/12/00 [Posted in FML issue 3323]