"Love them little mousies, Mousies what I love to eat. Bite they tiny heads off, Nibble on they tiny feet." B. Kilban OK, now that I have that out of my system. ;-) I fully and absolutely understand the arguments being made about ferrets being carnivores. I also fully realize that at one time, live prey was what they ate. BUT how many carnivores have been domesticated and then constantly and only fed the same live food as they preyed on as wild animals? I just don't buy the argument that live food is better for ferrets because it is more natural. If the ferret has been domesticated for a couple of thousand years, can we reasonably assume that over that period of time it still retained its wild diet for the vast majority of the time? Domestication, by its very nature also changes diet. My point it this. Some exotic animals kept as pets HAVE to be fed live food, or whole food (baby chicks for owls, various rodents for snakes). I don't feel however, ferrets fall into this category. They can thrive on kibble diets, especially when supplemented with a variety of foods including cooked meats. As someone said, you can always blanch the meat (boil for a short period of time) to get rid of diseases on the surface of the meat. I just don't see the necessity in feeding live prey to animals that are terribly domesticated and may not even recognize it as such (their predatory instincts long gone, even cats do not necessarily mouse). I have long thought about this, due to ethics of modern day slaughter houses and a leaning towards vegetarianism. If someone wishes to feed his ferrets mice, fine. Let him. However, I cannot help but wonder if this is more of a passing fad than reasonable science. I am not going to have a fit if I know anyone who does this, fine with me. I am not going to though, I don't see the need and have not been convinced it is a better alternative than other fresh foods available. One small note on the Egyptian ferret argument. The most convincing thing to me *against* ferrets in Egypt was a friend of mine in Houston. Rabia is a Berber from Algeria and had absolutely no clue as to what my ferrets were when he first saw them, and I answered lots of questions for him on this, since some folks were saying (at the time) that ferrets existed there. This man was very well educated and traveled and hadn't a clue. To me that shows there ain't no stinking ferrets there. hehe. Maggie and her rather stinking fats boy, along with the Mob "the moment I let go it was the moment I got more than I could handle the moment I jumped off of it was the moment I touched down." A. Morissette [Posted in FML issue 2544]