Hello to All: I have read the raw diet info. for some years now. If I owned a zoo and had the money and knowledge, I could feed my lions raw meat..if it were best for them. And I would know how to keep their environment free from contamination by raw tid bits hidden here and there. I would have staff to make sure whatever was necessary was done for the health of my wild ones. But my boogers are free roam. I have no zoo or staff. And they are ALL comical thieves. I love watching them all run off to hide their treats. I spend hours a day vacuming, sweeping, cleaning food and water bowls, and entertaining my squirrels. But I also work 40 to 50 hours a week, and am on call 24/7. I have had 2 emergency calls since early this morning. So I do not have time for a raw diet in my free roam home. There is no way I could pull out all the drawers to find raw entrails every day. Nor would I ever want to. I do not cage my crew...though there are cages in 3 rooms if they wish. Nor could I be sure I adequately cleaned those cages if I left ferrets in there with raw food. We have a problem with ants at times. I cannot imagine the horror of hundreds of ants in my underwear drawer. Or the bacterial growth as raw food is dragged throughout my home. A raw diet will not happen in my home for these reasons. I am washing down rooms every day where they have pooped on the floor. I am cleaning out 13 litter boxes every day. I know my limitations. I reason that I would already be beyond disgusted if I could see all the germs spread as the poopers wipe their bottoms on the floor. I have all ceramic floors now for that reason. But what areas have I missed? My BELIEF is that there are enough disgusting and dangerous germs afoot in my home already....despite the hours I spend each week cleaning up after my vixens. Cage the fur poopers while they eat their raw diet? Honestly...I do not have the strength in my hands left anymore to think I would daily thoroughly scrub all the tiers of each cage, daily change all the bedding in it, and keep the dirty bedding seperated for hot water and bleach. So, these are my PERSONAL reasons why the raw diet will just not be happening in my home. As for allowing my animals to tear apart a living being, and cleaning up all the blood and entrails and fur after hearing the attacked thing screaming in pain and terror: I have found numerous simple things to enrich my little devils. I just unwound a new rolled up rug and attached tubing to it. The plastic grocery sack from Costco ..gently throwing my babies out of it onto fresh thick bedding? SUCH dancing of delight! A new box with crinkly paper inside taped up with 2 holes of entry? Sheer laughter watching their brains at work and their happiness wrestling around in the paper. Large bowls of water with safe floating toys, the first snow of winter in my bath tub, ferretone and ice cubes in a bowl of water.....So many ways to entice and enchant the tiny ones. There is no NEED to be enriched by torture, screams, and the misery of others that I have ever read about. Please show proof that there is such a NEED if I am wrong. There is violence, pain, suffering, and misery in this life to fill our cups aplenty." Enrichment " through the ripping, and shredding apart alive of a helpless animal? In my opinion, there is no" need" to fill ones cup with such unnecessary horrors... unless one wishes and actively choses to be unnecessarily cruel. I am rather stunned I am writing this to you all here. But I believe these words with all my heart. May Mercy and Goodness look down upon us and shine its light upon us, and light up the dark corners of mans mind. Sincerely, Lisette [Posted in FML 6892]