http://www.smartgroups.com/message/viewdiscussion.cfm? gid=1423922&messageid=11864 [Sukie Note: Part of a discussion and I'll have to see if the vet who told me the earlier info has those studies handy... It will be interesting at some point to see if one study is better done than another even if it is just that newer methods allow for that rather than design, or if there are nuances due to study design or individual variation, or what.] Hi Sukie, Sukie what study are you using when you say insulinomas are not responsive to dietery sugars? In dogs and people insulinomas are responsive to dietry sugars. A new article called: A nutritional approach to the prevention of insulinomas in the pet ferret (in the Journal of exotic mammal medicine & surgery) describes how dietery sugars and carbohydrates cause insulinomas and should be avoided in ferrets with insulinomas. (JEMM&S, volume 2.2, Dec 2004, By Dr Mark Finkler) As we know when we treat insulinoma ferrets with seizure activity, when you give too much dextrose IV you do get a yo-yo effect with the glucose level going up then crashing back down again. I am pretty sure the same thing is happening with ingested sugar and carbohydrates. Thus it is better to supplement insulinoma ferrets with a high protien, high fat item (ie Gerber's 2nd stage chicken/turkey baby food, Hill's a/d, meat, eggs, etc). Ferrets can use amino acids from the protein to make glucose and use the fat to make glycerol. Jerry Murray, DVM [Posted in FML issue 4730]