Shirley, You said that ferrets in the wild do not get sick from food sitting around. You may have forgotten this but the ferrets we keep as members of our family are NOT Wild and have NOT been for Many, Many, Many Years. They are DOMESTICATED and are suseptable to things that their wild cousins are not. You also stated that you have been feeding RAW for 14 years. NOW, my question to this is and I'm sure others would also like to know is how old is your OLDEST ferret that has been eating this way? My friend had a breeder ferret that was altered VERRY late that lived to almost 17 years. This ferret was fed olny a HIGH quality ferret kibble. I have also known and talked to ferret owner who also fed a kibble diet and their ferrets lived to be 12-20 years old. Debi [Posted in FML 5414]