I hope everyone is enjoying their summer thus far. The warm weather has made it possible for us to start tackling our 3 page long project list, which has been taped to the fridge door for months. We've been getting a lot done and as a result have had little time for the internet or posting to the FML. But my morning ritual at work does include skimming the FML for topics of interest to me. Recently the topics of feeding ferrets mice and volunteers (not feeding volunteers to ferrets, but volunteering volunteers - you understand...) have come up. I'd like to chime in on these issues. On feeding mice to ferrets: BY ALL MEANS DO IT, if you have the stomach for it! Call me heartless, call me crazy, but not one of you could convince me to remove this dish from the menu. When an animal comes through my doors, I commit to caring for it in every aspect to the best of my abilities. This includes stuff like housing, enrichment, hygiene, vet care and diet. Overall man has done a mediocre job at mimicking the nutritional needs of our pet carnivores, but there are some foods that are better than others in meeting those needs. But there is nothing available to our ferrets that even remotely comes close to being as nutritionally complete as a whole prey food item such as a mouse or baby chick. I raise mice specifically for our carnivores. I purchase chicken 500 pounds at a time. I also buy as many frozen rabbits as possible! A mouse contains no preservatives, no additives, and the only vegetable matter you'll find, if any, in a mouse would be in its gut. Each of my ferrets receives 3-4 mice per week. I've been doing this for several years and I've made some simple personal observations. Not only is their poop firmer and less stinky, but they poop less than my few ferrets who refuse mice. The reason is simple, a mouse is so nutritionally complete that most of it gets digested, so less is pooped out. The less stinky part comes also from a lack of fillers/additives/etc... Additionally, although kibble is always available to them, they barely touch it. It's not so much that they don't like it, but they don't need to eat as much or as often, because their nutritional needs are satisfied. So what do my ferrets look like? They are extremely muscular and meaty from head to toe. Their coats are silky soft and glisten. They play for hours on end in their play yard (which is filled with sand, by the way - gasp). And how do they act? HEALTHY and LOVABLE. With the exception of one youngster who arrived nippy, our ferrets are very cuddly and loving (in between dancing and dooking). Even our unaltered males are complete lovebugs. I generally prefer to feed pre-killed mice to the ferrets for several reasons. First off, most of my ferrets haven't displayed the speedy kill tactic that their wilder cousins would. This means a slow death for the mouse, which I don't particularly find pleasure in. However, several of our ferrets possess the ability and character to kill a mouse within a couple of seconds - the same or less amount of time it would take for the mouse to be "pre-killed". For these ferrets, it's an additional sensory enrichment before the enriched meal. People should remember, however, that EATING the mouse is the enrichment goal. There's no NEED to watch a ferret chase, tackle, toss, roll and mame a poor mouse - especially if the ferret then just buries the dying mouse. If you want to demonstrate that sort of ferret behavior, hang a feather from the end of a stick and you do the work! So, if you don't feed mice to your ferret, does that mean you're an inadequate caretaker? Absolutely not! Most people can't stomach the thought of feeding mice. That's okay, as long as it's not based on myth or misconception. Feeding mice or meat does NOT make an animal aggressive! It's not like the taste of < whisper> blood is going to unleash the psycho killer within. If that were the case, I certainly wouldn't allow my cats to share my pillow at night........or at the very least I'd be missing an eye, which I'm not. Additionally, some people think that domestication involves a radical change to an animal's nutritional needs. When people argue that they don't feed mice to their ferrets "because ferrets are domestic animals", I have to ask, what does that have to do with anything? A mouse is still more nutritionally appropriate for our domestic pet than man-made kibble. Your domestic pet will still be domestic. The only difference is that it might be a little more nutritionally satisfied, and I dare say, healthier for it! I can't prove a correlation, but I haven't seen adrenal disease or insulinoma or blockages in any of my ferrets for a very long time. Coincidence? Ask the Europeans. If you can't do it, you can't do it. Remember: "To the best of your ability." But please don't bash the people who do it for the nutritional value. If you're sitting on the fence, do what others have done. Find someone who feeds mice and bring your ferrets over for a trial lunch date. You don't even have to watch. If it's the live mouse thing that bothers you, get them frozen or fresh pre-killed. That's what one of my volunteers does ;-) She gets the fresh killed mice from me. 6 months ago, she would've puked at the idea or at least fainted watching the ferrets at mealtime. I'm so proud of her openmindedness and advancement ;-)))) But she does still hold the little "mouse baggie" with the tips of her thumb and forefinger (pinkie in the air) as though she's holding the world's most toxic dirty diaper. Wanna learn more about feeding a "more natural" diet? Do a google search on BARF. No kidding. Just do it. Getting your ferret to eat mice? Well that's whole other subject......... start 'em young... Kim S [Posted in FML issue 4213]