The babies are doing great; there is only the occasional tarry stool, and all are playing again. I do believe the danger is over. Retested everyone, with more startled looks and bugged-out eyes, and the cultures will be ready to read tomorrow. Wish them luck. Q: Can domesticated ferrets breed with black footed ferrets? A: Sure, but only in enlightened countries. They can breed, but nothing comes out of it. The domestic ferret has 40 chromosomes, and the BFF has 38. The BFF can easily breed with the steppe polecat, and have viable and fertile young, but no evidence exists that either can successful bred with the ferret. There is a book detailing interspecies breeding, and some attempts had been made, but in lab conditions, and were ultimately unsuccessful. Q: What you you think of the "Great Food Debate?" A: I love tacos smothered in guacamole. (I wanted to crack, "Cats: The other white meat" but was afraid of the Pro-cat lobby) It is extremely important to realize that only *minor* differences exist in the molecular makeup of muscle tissues between species. In other words, as far as the digestive organs are concerned, muscle is muscle is muscle. Some muscle is better at sustained work (like your heart) and other muscle is better at rapid and hard work (like running away from the Ca Ca Fish and Gestapo). But, your stomach sees them about the same way. Not necessarily so with fats, because they have the ability to store vitamins and other stuff that bodies require. The fat from one species may be richer in vitamin D, while another species's fat may be loaded with vitamin B or A. These fat soluable vitamins pose a danger; if too many are taken in, the body can be poisoned. Species adapt in several ways, most notably by decreasing their own production of the substance, finding some metabolic way of handling the excess, or a combination of both. You will discover this yourself if you eat seal or shark liver. Anyway, the differences between the biochemistry of muscle tissues are minor, and essentially unimportant, but the differences between fats has the potiential of being *very* important, not due to the structure of the fat, but the substances they may contain. I short, the major difference between types of food animals is in the proportions of muscle mass to fat mass, and the kinds of stuff in the fat. Why is this important? Because an animal that evolved eating animals of specific fat/muscle proportions has 1) a gut that reflects that evolutionary relationship, 2) has gut motility that reflects that relationship, 3) has specific requirements for essential amino and fatty acids that refelct that relationship, and 4) has enzymes that reflect that relationship. (Oh, I know I could list at least ten other things, such as teeth, behavior, etc., but space and boredom...) Many argue that since protein is important, and protein is protein, animals can eat vegetable proteins and get along fine. They can *IF* they have a gut that allows the food to be in the body for the proper length of time, and if they make the proper enzymes to break the food down. Cooking is an artifical way to do this, but is limited in scope for some carnivores, especially ferrets. The practice of eating fruit (and to a lesser degree, nuts) may or may not be prove the ability to eat plants; they may be consumed for carbohydrates, and the undigestible proteins pass right on through. Sometimes cats are compared to ferrets. Is it valid? What do the bodies of the two predators say? Cats have a longer bowel, and the large intestine is easily distinquished from the small intestine. They have a caecum at that juncture, they have a much longer transit time for food to leave the body, and they possess several enzymes that ferrets do not. Ferrets have no caecum, you cannot visually tell the end of the small intestine from the beginning of the large, and they have a very short transit time for food. Mink are also compared to ferrets, and this comparison is just as faulty for the same reasons. Basically, if you want to draw an analogy, then you have to first prove a close relationship. Sure, ferrets and mink are closer related than cats and ferrets, but they hunt different food as well. Think about it. If ferrets, mink and cats can live in the same areas, and in some parts of Europe they do, they can't be eating the exact same foods; something must be different. You don't need to know _what_ the differences are between a mink's, a cat's and a ferret's diet; all you need to know is that differences do exist, and they reflect different needs. For example, a cat and a ferret may both eat small rodents, which _sounds_ as if they eat the same thing. But the cat may eat more rats, and the ferret more voles, and differences in fat and vitamins, and fat-to-muscle contents between the two species can potientually be significant. Evolutionarly significant. The absolute best diet for any animal is that which it evolved to eat. But I have neither the facilities nor the heart to feed my beasties live voles and rabbits, insects, fish and crustaceans, frogs, and whatever else they find in the wilds of Europe. So I compromise and choose the best foods available. Not one commerically available food is perfect; they all have limitations of one type or another (Prove they DON'T!). I have chosen to maximize the benefits and minimize the problems buy feeding my ferrets some of each. I mix together every high quality food I can find. I care less if it was made for a ferret or a cat, because I haven't been convinced _ANY_ food fulfills the ferret's particular evolutionary needs (yes, I have read all about the various ferret chows, and no, I am still not convinced because they were based on studies of lab animals and not wild nor domile-living animals, but that's another story). Hey, if the protein/fat proportions are right, the plant parts are low on the list, and the food is made by a reputable firm, it's good. You can quibble over antioxidants, food colorings, or corn vs rice, but Mr. Digestive Tract sees little difference between beef vs lamb, or even poultry. The advantages of my special mix is if one part is unavailable, the ferrets don't seem to notice or care. I can throw in new stuff, and it is readily accepted. To me, the argument is similar to the one I had with my brother. He said the best vehicle for a trip we wanted to take was a white suburban. I said no, it would be a red suburban. Ferret food, cat food, hell, even monkey food would be ok if the fat/protein mix was proper, and the stuff was not made from plants. Screw the hype, read the ingrediants, and for God's sake, play with the little monkeys. Blink once, and they are gone. Mo' Bob and the 18 Ronco Poop-O-Matics (Formerly with Gus) [Posted in FML issue 1707]