On Oct 22, 2007, at 3:00 AM, Anonymous wrote: >What would happen if you fed a ferret nothing but meat? .... "fajita >beef" ... Let's say I fed a ferret two or three strips twice a day, >plus as much water as he'd drink. Dear Anonymous, Without getting into the quasi-religious debates over the merit of raw food, I think it's safe to say that feeding purely fajita beef is not a good idea. When a carnivore catches and eats a mouse, it eats pretty much the whole thing. Organ meats contain vitamins and minerals absent in muscle meat. The gut almost certainly holds a small amount of partially-digested vegetable matter. Connective tissue and fur provide a certain amount of fiber. Pure muscle meat is low in calcium, potassium, vitamin A, thiamin, and viatamin E, according to a University of Nebraska study (they were comparing grass-fed versus grain-fed bison, but I think the pattern of nutrients applies to cows as well). http://www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/carringt/bison/nutrients_in_meat.htm Both vitamin A and vitamin E are what are called fat-soluble vitamins, and muscle meat is too lean to contain much. Most muscle meats contain only about 4% fat. The cheapest, fattiest hamburger can be as high as 25%. Fajita meat will not get anywhere near the 30% fat figure we look for in ferret foods. Of course, what is meant by "high" and "low" nutrient levels depends on what the requirements are. For people, we have a good idea. But we don't have a chart of "adult minimum daily requirements" for ferrets. We know what is necessary to keep lab animals alive and apparently healthy, but not necessarily what is needed to thrive in the long term. Cow muscle meat is also low in vitamin K, according to the Coumadin drug site. Vitamin K is a clotting factor that helps heal wounds, but increases the danger of blood clots if hypertension is present. Coumadin is a drug which decreases the effect of vitamin K. >Purely as a theory I'd imagine that the ferret's waste would be less >both in quantity and odor, and I'd suspect a longer and higher quality >life. Poop quantity may be less, but I think you will find that, in general, carnivore poop smells much much worse than vegetarian poop. Processed animal food also produces less smell. Some processed foods are better in this regard than others -- for instance, Marshall's has a big fish content, and the waste is smelly. Blood sugar, in all mammals, is glucose, which has to come from the food we eat. Breaking apart protein to provide glucose is complicated, and makes ketones and other smelly substances as a byproduct. The exact nature of the amino acid/fat mixture determines exactly what chemicals are in the waste which makes the smell. Feeding raw whole prey might well lead to longer life. There is certainly anecdotal evidence to that effect, though there are probably other factors operating (for instance, there is good evidence that decreased caloric intake increases longevity, and raw food is not generally continuously supplied as is kibble). And some will point out the increased danger of microbial contamination of raw food. This argument has shown religious fervor on both sides (and I think BIG has promised to be proactive in preventing any further discussion from getting out of hand). But I think both sides will agree that a diet of just frozen fajita meat is not a terribly good idea. -Claire [Posted in FML 5769]