No, I'm not back. You didn't think I was going to let Alexandra post about this, and not post, too, did you? Au contrare! (or however you spell that!) So, here is *my* experience with raw vs. kibble (for those of you that lost your maximum humorous bone, skip this post...you won't get it.) I've fed raw kibble for the whole time I've had ferrets. None have objected. I tried cooked kibble once, but they didn't notice that, either, so I stopped doing the extra work. I contemplated fried kibble, but then realized that was just ridiculous. Raw kibble works best. As for things that are NOT kibble and are served raw, I've tried the following (NOTE: I didn't actually *try* some of these...the ferrets tried them...usually against my advice): Chocolate Easter Pumpkins Bread Hamburger (meant for the cat) Pencils Sleep Sacks Towels Other Ferrets The Cat For cooked items, they have tried the following (again, *I* didn't give it to them...they usually STOLE it!) Macaroni (cheese included) Meatballs Sausage Chicken Bones (again, swiped from the cat, despite a vigorous defense) Ham (no wrappers) Spaghetti Fish Mashed Potatoes Fried Potatoes Corn Chips (now we know where some of them get that smell!) Cheese Puffs Popcorn Fried Green Tomatoes (not really, but it sounded silly) Hamburger (while it was still on the bun!) Cheese (with *and* without the hamburger) Green Beans Lettuce (no, it wasn't cooked, but it was on something that was!) Rice Shrimp Lobster Corn-on-the-Cob (just to get the cat mad) Buttered Noodles Tamales Chicken (in various dishes) Pork Chop (once) French Fries (Jessica actually likes these!) Eggs (in various forms) Cubed Beef (from a bowl of beef stew) Carrots (swiped from guinea pig cages) In all cases, 98% of the pilfered products were left for me to find and clean up. In *some* cases, 100% was left, but it was thoroughly licked, first. Regardless, the consensus was that cooked food is over-rated. For those of you making pie charts of this data, the following information may be of some use...or not: I don't have any ferrets under the age of 5 at this time, though they all were much younger than that when they first moved in I have had 5 of my 7 ferrets for over five years I have one ferret who is almost 12, who eats up to three yogurt/raisins every day All of my ferrets eat Iams Original Formula Cat Food (as does the cat) Some of my ferrets also eat Totally Ferret (just because it costs a lot of money, I think) All of my ferrets get lots of love and attention and anywhere from 6 to 8 hours per day out-of-cage time Pumpkin, apple, mince - for those that need to fill in extra areas of the pie chart Todd and the (Don't eat that - it still smells fresh!) Fuzzbutt Rodeo Clowns http://www.netconex.com/toddl/Page2/ [Posted in FML 5403]