The basic thing that the food differences come down to is that no one can go completely wrong or completely right with a diet, whether it is feeding animals to the ferrets or choosing good quality kibbles. On the other hand, none of the choices are perfect, either. If a person can prepare cooked animal foods which are balanced properly for ferrets that might be the best compromise except when certain kidney problems or other medical reason to not do so exist. (There are sites to help do this.) A number of prepared foods seem to be improving all of the time, probably because the ferret community does have people who are discriminating in their purchase choices, and also because the technology involved in food making is beginning to improve enough to allow more options. It's about time! Food makers themselves would like more flexibility in how they design their products to best fulfill the needs of ferrets, so it is good to see them beginning to get that. The reason we personally don't feed raw is because even though the diseases which can be caught are rare, far too many of them rate as severe to fatal, so while there is a dearth of solid, well-challenged (Important! Essential!), hard data about so many claims for and against different diets we just know that what we are doing isn't perfect because there isn't any perfect solution at this point in time. Kibble may present texture, hardness, stickness, and carbohydrate content considerations that might serve as downsides, but I am not yet personally convinced that their impact is large enough to change our approach. There may be (okay, will be) differences in opinion on any of my choices or points, but until there is enough hard data which survives challenges, esp. the challenges of experts that will be my stance: that none of the diets is perfect os we each have our own ways of weighing things and deciding. In other words, as far as I am concerned, the best things for group harmony -- tolerance and acceptance of people's own choices -- also happen to be the only truly logical approaches to foods at this stage, given what fragments we have of well-established knowledge that has survived challenges. Does that make people who do things differently from the way we do wrong? Nope, just different, and each has its own upsides and downsides so when a ferret gets ill always let the treating vet know what is eaten and the condition in which it is eaten just as you also tell about treats, and any supplements or meds of any type given. That is only logical no matter what you happen to be feeding. Until there is good hard data which survives strict peer review and challenges feeding remains just is a situation where no one except people feeding junk need to ride the guilt train. Now, could we maybe have the people who are yelling at each other for the way they are communicating perhaps consider going off-list for that part. HERE'S AN IDEA WHICH WOULD PROBABLY STOP ALL OF THE FIGHTING: when people tell their own food choices they should list the downsides or possible downsides of their own choices as well as the upsides. It not only is more balanced and accurate, but it removes reasons for those who see the problem differently to even reply. Sound good? -- Sukie (not a vet, and not speaking for any of the below in my private posts) Recommended health resources to help ferrets and the people who love them: Ferret Health List http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth FHL Archives http://ferrethealth.org/archive/ AFIP Ferret Pathology http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html Miamiferrets http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/ International Ferret Congress Critical References http://www.ferretcongress.org [Posted in FML 5400]