Obligate Carnivore is a rather ill defined noun subtended by an adjectival modifier. Obligate can be taken to mean, mandatory or required. Carnivore can be taken to mean an organism that sustains its existence by consuming animal tissue as well as bone, be it an accidental constituent part of the tissue eaten. Realize too that the carnivore is not necessarily an animal. It is also a plant. A plant that is obligated upon animal tissue and fluids in order to keep itself alive. Obviously the carnivorous plant possess a vastly different mechanism for extracting those compounds necessary for self sustenance - a mechanism that is quite different from the mammalian structures that produce the same results albeit in a manner infinitely more complex than the plant carnivores nutrient extraction plumbing. Consider for a moment the process of evolution where evolutionary pressure upon an organism will result in minute changes to an organism that sexually reproduces itself, as opposed to asexual reproduction. One may ask how the process of animal domestication is related to evolutionary changes over eons of time. Consider the elongate neck of the giraffe, which animal, by the way, has the identical number of cervical vertebrae as do you with your short stub of a neck. Does the giraffe have a long neck because it was forced by the pressures of change (Obamanism) in tree growth over eons of time as trees grew taller and taller? Did the giraffes of way, way long ago with their normally short necks nearly all die, because their tree top food grew nearly out of reach? Did the follow on generations of millions and millions of near starved short necked giraffes start the evolutionary process of stretched necks with the results we see today, the long necked giraffe? Were you capable of plotting neck lengths over the eons of time, say from the short neckers to the long neckers of today, I would ask you to pick two giraffes, say two generations of separation between them and measure the difference in any given cervical vertebrae, what would that length difference be? Obviously, there must be a difference, because otherwise how could the necks ever grow longer and longer over time? Then too, this could be a futile hunt. It could be futile because the very first giraffe was born with that long neck and evolutionary pressures had nothing to do with it. Be this the case, then one may ask what is/was the purpose of the giraffe? And along this same thread, I should like to ask for that very first wolf that was not a complete wolf but was the result of domestication pressures exerted upon that one wolf by man that was to destine it a domesticated wolf, which today we call a dog. Where is that wolf/dog? I want to see it. I want to see if I can tell the difference between the mother wolf and her wolf/dog puppy, however slight that difference may be. Obamanizing an organism over time, as the wolf to dog transition must result in many, many changes in the genome. These changes, although we know for sure that they are there somewhere, we haven't been able to detect just one, or even many. And why is this? From the human perspective, Delta is just too, too small, and secondly, we don't really know where to look in the organism nor what physically to look for. So just how can one be expected to find that which is unknown, its size, contour, color and shape? In summary I should like to ask, how has domestication affected the pet ferret, not the wild ferret, whose pressure of domesticity is nil, but the pet ferret upon whom the pressure for Obamanism is tremendous and constant? There is nobody out there today who can prove beyond any possible doubt that the ferret of today is exactly the same as it was the 2nd Tuesday in October, the day it branched off the Canoidea tree of evolutionary development. Is it not absurd to state emphatically that the alimentary canal of the ferret, in form, fit and function, is identical in every respect to the alimentary canal of that ferret who arrived the 2nd Tuesday in October? The proponents of obligated carnivore food restriction to meat and meat only are denying their ferrets the opportunity of good health. Try this. Offer a slowly cooked tomato mixed with the meat. Blend the meat and tomato in a high speed blender for two minutes and bring to soup consistency with canned vegetable broth. Feed to your ferret while soup is still warm. Take a look at Nutritional Value of Tomato. Nutritional Value of Tomato: Nutrition Facts and Information about Tomato: Tomato is a good source of calcium and iron. It also contains some amounts of phosphorus, sulfur and potassium. Vitamin Content: Tomato is rich in vitamin C and contains some vitamin B and vitamin A. The vitamin C content increases as the vegetable ripens. TomatoCalorific Content of Tomato: 100 g of tomato contains only 20 calories. These calories are easy to absorb . The low calorie content of tomato makes it a favorite of obese ferrets. It provides you some of the essential minerals and vitamins, fills the stomach and does not add calories Health Benefits of Tomato: The nutritional value of tomato makes it good for weight loss, obesity, eye disorders, night blindness, urinary tract infection, liver disorders, indigestion, constipation, diarrhea, intestinal disorders, and diabetes. It also helps in cleansing the body of toxic compounds. The minute lignin/cellulose fibers excreted by the ferret, as indigestibles, act to scrub clean the walls of the lower digestive tract and prevent the development of ECE (Epizootic Catarrhal Enteritis). Be aware that the mixing of meats and vegetables, cooked and micro-miniaturized in the ultra-hi speed blender, is synergized such that the total benefit is greater than the benefit of either food item alone. It's the Pioneers who take the arrows. Edward Lipinski Ferrets North West Foundation. [Moderator's note: For the sake of people searching archives, please let me note here that Mr. Lipinski's views do not reflect the views of any scholarly community I am aware of. There is no research to support his assertions but much which disproves them. BIG] [Posted in FML 6292]