Hi Linda ~ You said: >So I try to improve their kibble based diet a little bit at a time. I >think it unlikely I would go to a totally natural diet, I just don't >have the discipline. I do wish some pet food manufacturer would make a >quality canned ferret food with minimal carbohydrates. I would probably >make it a regular part of my guys' diet. Interesting posts. Back in the 80's when we had Houdini, the only thing available for ferrets was cat food. He got a mixture of something canned and the pink friskies box (a dried kibble). He lived to be 12, ran around outside and "snacked" from our plates after supper. Mind you he only had a few pieces of the meats, or veggies and fruits he liked. So for him, life was good on a farm. His favorite place was my melon patch. We didn't know about ferret guidelines back then, and he belonged to our housemate so I didn't want to intrude a lot. My point is he did very well. I've decided to go back for my CNC (Certified Nutrition Counselor) certificate, because there are a ton of mistakes out on proper food combining and the diet today of humans. It means resurrecting some of my old textbooks on nutrition. A bigger point is made by John Robbins in his book "Diet for a New America.' He goes into all of the different "meat" industries and tells us how they are now processed, fed and killed, including growth hormones and other drugs like antibiotics. Way back in 1987 he saw that many young girls were maturing earlier because of eating these meats and dairy products with growth hormones in them. It's a scary book and made me very glad we farm organically. Then he went to farmers, and referenced the chemicals used in farming today, runoff to our water resources, and the damage done by erosion. He followed the loss of many inches of organic topsoil in different parts of the country. A hundred years ago we had 12 to16 inches of topsoil. Today most farms have 4 to 5 inches. We here have 12. It is the mineral loss in our soils that gives us less healthy foods. We've lost our iron supplementation, with iron-depleted soils. Remember the old iron pots our grandmothers used? Some of that iron leached out into our grandparents' food. Cancers were not as pronounced 100 years ago as now, he states. His main point is that our food supply of today, is not as healthy as it could be. Granted, Robbins is passionate in his research and his method of writing. So, if our food isn't meeting "our" needs, we should be looking at what we feed our pets/farm animals too. It would be interesting to see if the ferrets of yesterday (10-20 years ago) had as many diseases and illnesses as ours do today. Looking at our food chain and lobbying for a healthier food industry may not only help us, but our beloved pets as well. I am saving Bob C's food series to assist in feeding my little ones, and thank him for the time and care that went into this series. Source: Robbins, John. *Diet for a New America.* NH: Stillpoint Publishing, 1987. Warmly ~ Mary Herbalist The Conley Farm - organic herbs Online Classes ~ [log in to unmask] [Posted in FML issue 3949]