From Sukie: >Shirley wrote: >>Another thing that always cuts me to the quick is when folk write that >>they started to give their ferrets Bob C's Chicken Gravy when it got >>insulinoma. Now it wont go back to kibble any more. Would you go >>back to a diet that was probably the cause of the disease in the first >>place???? > >This is important, Shirley: the concept that carbohydrates in the diet >are even *a* cause or *a contributing cause* for insulinoma has NOT been >proven. It is a hypothesis, in fact it is based upon a group of about a >half dozen hypotheses in a chain. Sukie, this is twice as important: Ferrets that are fed a natural diet do not get insulinoma. I can say this with some authority because of my dealings with hundreds of ferrets over about ten years. I am not prepared to wait endlessly for a study to provide results. (In my mind, the study currently underway does not address the real problem.) I want better health for ferrets and a longer life for them too; and I want it now! When we take on the care of a pet of any type, it is up to us to provide the very best for them, even to the extent of changing some of our habits and beliefs, no matter how ingrained. Once we begin to change the animal to suit our purposes, or chose to provide them only with what is convenient to us, we need to question our reasons for wanting that particular pet in the first place. I, and I'm sure most folk on this list, take the responsibility of ethical pet care very seriously. To feed a ferret an artificial diet, notice the health problems evolving and not want to attempt to bring about change is unethical in my opinion. I will go one step further. Ferrets that are provided with a natural diet do not get adrenal disease. There is one layer of the adrenal gland that is resposible for notifying the pancreas to produce more insulin. Although it is not the layer that produces the sex hormones, it is not hard to believe that adrenal disease, too, is caused by a diet of the high carbohydrate kibble. I think that the current trend to administer drugs to prevent adrenal disease is simply awful when a much better solution is available - natural diet. Always for the Ferrets, Shirley [Posted in FML issue 5188]