[2-part post, combined] Q: "Quick question please.... Many of know that dairy products are not recommended for ferrets but why not? The only reason I can I think of is that it gives them loose bowel movements for a day or two afterward. Is there a problem with milk solids or some other reason to avoid dairy products? Why avoid dairy in ferret diets?" A: Besides, it gives them dairy-rrhea. The problem with feeding ferrets milk is milk sugar (lactose). Mammals, as infants, tolerate milk sugar and have the proper enzymes to process it, so it is no problem. The problem is, before agriculture and cow domestication, access to milk was limited more-or-less to the early part of life. As a consequence, the ability to produce lactase, the enzyme that helps digest lactose (milk sugar) is lost sometime after weaning. That is the default pattern in mammals; weaned mammals tend to be lactose intolerant because the ability to produce lactase is lost as the animal (person) ages. When lactose intolerant animals (persons) consume milk sugar, it is not properly digested because there is no enzyme to break it apart into glucose and galactose. The undigested lactose molecules throw off the osmotic gradient in the bowel, which pulls fluid into the intestines. You can do the same thing by drinking Go-Lightly, as anyone who has had the pleasure of quaffing a gallon of what I lovingly call "Salted Horse Sweat" can attest. The resulting stool is runny and watery -- classic diarrhea. The undigested sugar in the bowel can also be utilized by intestinal bacteria for food, resulting in classic symptoms of gas, bloating, etc., but these problems are limited in ferrets when compared to humans. Mostly, they just get a bad case of the runs. Other than milk sugar, the rest of the milk is fine and not a problem. In fact, it is an excellent food for ferrets, being high in both fat and protein. I give my ferrets cottage cheese without bad effects. The problem with milk, as I said, is in milk sugar. Milk was part of the not-so-popular "Milk and Bread Diet," from about the 1830s to the 1930s. It was during this period of time that milk production increased, the technology to store and ship milk was invented, and low milk prices made it affordable to be feed to animals. The milk-and-bread diet was stale bread, usually soaked in water and wrung out, and then covered with cream or whole milk (not separated milk). This diet was NOT satisfactory, but a ferret could live on it for a year or two, especially if fed the occasional rat or rabbit so they could replenish essential nutrients. It frequently resulted in a disease called "the scours," which usually ended in the ferret's death, most likely due to a combination of dehydration and electrolyte imbalance. There also seemed to be some deaths caused by bacterial infections in ferrets that had a constantly wet rear end. The diet was mostly popular with city folks who did not know much about ferrets; I have one book that suggests "scoundrel breeders" suggested the diet to those put off by animals that ate rats. It also seems that it was promoted by some Ohio ferret farms who knew American farmers would see the diet as economical, being that they had dairy cows, waste milk, and it was better than throwing away stale bread. One modification of the diet, especially in the USA, used oat or corn meals instead of bread. It was never popular with people who knew ferrets and worked with them. Ferret people would consistently write about how bad the diet was, encouraging new or city ferret owners to abandon it in favor of a meat diet. The main reason I suggest the diet was never as popular as what some contemporary people think is because of "common knowledge" or "folk knowledge" bias. Most ferret owners are painfully aware of what some people think about ferrets, especially in the area of biting and being a danger to infants. Just a few weeks ago, I was talking to the cashier at Sams, who had asked me why I was buying so many whole chickens. I mentioned I would BBQ one, roast one in the oven, and the other dozen would be fed to my ferrets as chunked raw chicken, Bob's Chicken Gravy, or Bob's Ferret Chicken Soup. A lady behind me was eavesdropping, and exclaimed, "Ferrets!!?? They kill babies and chew off their faces!!" Once something gets into a culture's folk knowledge, it appears as if it was far more widespread and accepted than it actually was. For example, folk or common knowledge incorporates other myths into the public perception of ferrets, including that they are rodents (probably because of association with ratting), that they are horrible biters (probably due to a combination of ferret legging stories, ferrets never socialized to people, and ferret abuse resulting in fear biting), that they have no emotions (probably from lack of proper bonding), that they are bloodthirsty (probably due to a combination of killing behavior instinct over-stimulation, caching behaviors, and observations of the killing bite), they kill babies (I have been unable to document more than a tiny handful of cases of real injury and fewer deaths THROUGHOUT history), and they eat a bread-and-milk diet. Just because something is common or folk knowledge, it doesn't mean it is correct, that it actually happened, and that was historically popular. Folk knowledge bias ALWAYS seems to suggest something was far more popular than it ever was. There is some evidence that suggests if you feed a ferret milk as a kit and continue to do so as an adult, the ferret can continue to eat milk without ill effect. The idea is the continued diet of milk helps retain the intestine's ability to make lactase. This helps to explain why some groups of people drink milk without problems, while others that are seemingly in the same gene pool are lactose intolerant. A lot of research is being done on this at the moment, and it is likely that recommendations can shift back and forth before it is finally worked out. Some people recommend just giving cream to ferrets, which doesn't have as much milk sugar, but the high fat could also cause the runs (for different reasons). Some people recommend feeding milk commerically treated to remove milk sugar, which solves the problem of lactose intolerance. Others suggest adding lactase to the milk (tablet or liquid -- sold under a variety of names), which also seems to help. I give natural whole milk (pasteurized, but not homogenized) about once a week, and I don't worry about the resulting squirts because one runny stool a week has no health or nutritional consequence. My ferrets like milk, I give them a little bit once a week, and then I clean up the poo. It stinks, but it is not a problem. Bob C [log in to unmask] [Posted in FML issue 5338]