This is my long-overdue thank you to everyone who wrote regarding my questions about raw food. Since Rocky has never wanted to eat any other kind of meat except chicken, I went out and bought a whole expensive one. Gave him part of a wing. He wouldn't touch it. He didn't even seem want the flesh part. No dark meat, bones or skin for him! It must be food karma: since childhood I would never eat anything except boneless, skinless, white meat; and I still prefer it. So what was I gonna do with a whole chicken? Chicken soup for me and chicken gravy for Rocky. What a lot of labor, especially the chicken gravy. I really was hoping Rocky would eat other parts of the chicken for more complete nutrition and his teeth. Oh well...I guess the fact that he'll eat raw chicken breast, egg yolk and occasionally a cooked bone is better than no unprocessed food at all. Since I seem to have started up this whole controversy, I will say that I had two thoughts regarding a ferret's ability to eat something that perhaps would make humans sick. In the wild, if a ferret takes down a rabbit, I doubt he's gonna eat it all at once, thus the food-hiding habit we all see. Unless it's winter, the leftover rabbit isn't going to be "refrigerated." So I would think ferrets and other carnivores would be able to eat things we can't without getting sick. My other thought was that since their sense of smell is so much better than ours, they'd be better able to detect that something is bad to eat. Just a thought... not science. To those worried about the "hidden" leftovers under the sofa or in the dustiest corners of the room, I always found that the meat or bone would dry up very quickly. It was only when I kept it wet in his bowl by adding water that it spoiled really quickly. Not that you want meat scattered all over your home. So for now, it's raw chicken breast, chicken gravy and kibble. Dooks, Shron & Rocky [Posted in FML issue 5165]