More Dooks Cat Food debate

NOTE - THIS INFORMATION WAS CREATED BY MORE DOOKS AND IS ONLY REPLICATED IN TOTAL AS HER SITE IS DOWN

Why Some Cat/Kitten Foods are Ferret Suitable

The following is an opinion. It is written as an argument, not as unbiased fact sheet. I also acknowledge that dry pet food is not ideal for ferrets when compared to natural diets. For the sake of this argument, "suitable" means "suitable in terms of dry kibble". UNDER CONSTRUCTION

"Cat/kitten food is not suitable for ferrets"

I've heard this argument repeated time and time again. While I strongly disagree and want to help people understand why I think some cat food is better than most ferret food, I would prefer to not argue with anyone directly. When it comes down to it, the people that repeat this claim are doing what they believe is best and I'm doing what I believe is best, so I can respect their actions; we all have the well-being of ferrets in our intentions.

Instead I've decided to write out my thoughts here to provide a resource for the counterargument. Hopefully I'll be able to help at least some people think a bit deeper about the topic, and give them more information to use make their own decision. I'll be arguing:

"Some kinds of high quality cat/kitten food are highly suitable for ferrets"

4 Reasons why some cat/kitten foods are great for ferrets:

1. The polecats ferrets were domesticated from were obligate carnivores just like cats. They ate mostly rabbits, mice, voles, and shrews, just like cats. Although they have a higher metabolism than adult cats and a less efficient digestive system, their nutritional needs and ideal diets are very similar to cats.

2. Ferret food is made in the same way and from the same ingredients as cat food. Both are chicken and/or other meats and meals blended together with vegetables (ie rice, wheat, corn, potatoes) and vitamins and minerals. That dough is cooked at high heat and pressure and extruded into tiny kibble pieces. It is then sprayed with fats or oils to increase the flavor. Ferret foods don't do anything different in this process, so given similar ingredients they are not digested any faster or differently by ferrets than cat foods are.

If you compare labels from ferret and cat foods, you'll find many of them are almost the exact same product. A good example of this is Zupreem Grain-Free Ferret Diet and Taste of the Wild Rocky Mountain Feline Formula.

As another example, Innova EVO (which many consider to be among the very best) puts the EXACT same food into their ferret food bags as their cat food bags.

3. The ferret food industry is relatively small. There just isn't much room in the industry for extra-high-end-quality ferret foods; it's not all that profitable. The sad truth is that most ferret owners don't do any research on nutrition and just buy whichever ferret food catches their eye from the shelf, whichever has a good price, or whichever the pet shop clerk tells them to buy. As a result, most ferret foods are only "average" at best in quality.

The cat food industry on the other hand is huge. Because there are so many cat owners out there, there are more people willing to pay top dollar for food that is grain-free and made of 75% meat or more. Stores sell more cat food so they can afford to stock plenty of different brands and forumlations of cat food from all ends of the "quality" spectrum, whereas its usually only profitable for them to stock 2-3 brands of ferret food.

Because of this, there is a small handful of REALLY good cat/kitten foods out there that exceed most ferret foods in quality. There's just more room for them on the market.

4. Cat foods need to meet many nutrient level requirements set by the AAFCO and ferret foods do not. Cat foods that make claims like "complete and balanced" have to meet an AAFCO nutrient profile with a long list of miniumum and sometimes maximum levels for different vitamins, minerals, amino acids, etc. There is no AAFCO nutrient profile for ferrets.

Ferret foods that say "complete and balanced" are making this claim up themselves, as there are no AAFCO profiles for ANY specific vitamin, mineral, or amino acid amounts for ferret foods.

3 Main Schools of Thought from the "No Cat Food for Ferrets" Side, and My Counterarguments:

1. "GROCERY brand cat/kitten food is low quality and unsuitable for ferrets, and most people don't know a good food from a bad one. It's safer to tell people that cat food is unsuitable just so that no one mistakenly feeds their ferret a low quality cat food."

I understand this process of thinking, and I sympathize with it the most. I agree with two points.

· most cat/kitten food is low quality and is unsuitable for ferrets.

· Most people don't' know how to tell a good food from a bad one. They think that a well known brand name, or the food recommended by their vet or pet shop clerk is the best, and never stop to actually read the ingredients. This is just as much a fault of the level of dishonesty of the pet food industry as it is a fault of the owner.

Unfortunately, there are plenty of terrible ferret foods out there too. Some have 3 of the first 4 ingredients listed as vegetables. Some have no animal protein sources aside from by-products. Some have chunks of fruits or veggies mixed in that could cause a blockage in a ferret's digestive tract. Just because a food says it is suitable for a ferret doesn't make it so.

I don't want anyone to choose a ferret food like the fictional one above (full of by-products and corn, with no real meat) over a great grain-free cat food that guarantees 80% meat (something like EVO or CORE or Go! Natural), because they heard somewhere that cat food isn't suitable for ferrets.

I think it is better for ferret owners to understand a ferret's nutritional needs, and know what makes a good food so they can avoid bad cat foods AND bad ferret foods. Education is a better solution.

2. "Ferrets have a shorter, less efficient digestive tract so they need a food that digests quickly"

I couldn't agree more. The best way to make a food highly digestible for an obligate carnivore is to give it a very high protein and fat content, with very few complex carbohydrates. It also helps to use proper muscle meat sources rather than by-products.

There are many cat foods that do a better job of this than many ferret foods.

3. "Ferret food has all of its nutrients carefully balanced for ferrets. Cat food isn't designed for ferrets, so will cause a nutritional imbalance."

Now this is where I begin to disagree. I'd like to dive straight into an example for this one. Here is a real ferret food:

Here are some of the things that are wrong with it:

· They talk about the benefits of chicken fat, but that item does not appear anywhere on their full ingredients list. Perhaps they are counting the fat present in chicken meal?

· No matter who you ask, 15% fat is far below optimal for ferrets

· The ingredients list is full of corn and other vegetables, making up 3 of the first 4 ingredients

· It uses two sugary sweeteners (raisin juice and molasses)

· They brag about supplying carbs

Now, given that information:

· Do you believe that this food is a that supplies "a high level of nutrition" for "ferrets' distinct dietary needs" as claimed?

· Do you believe it is wise to put trust into the generic marketing claims printed on any pet food bag?

· If this food can legally claim to supply "balanced life cycle" nutrition for ferrets, does the term lose some of its meaning to you? Why should the claim mean something to you on another brand's bag if you can accept that it means nothing on this bag?

On the subject of using the phrase "complete and balanced" in ferret foods

A little bit research from SOLID sources (reputable published books and scientific journals rather than company websites, public forums, blogs, etc.) will quickly teach you that we don't know a whole lot of technical detail about the ferret's nutritional needs.

I think few people in the online ferret community fully grasp this, so I'm going to really emphasize this point: NO ONE has done and published any solid research to determine the ferret's minimum, maximum, or optimal requirements for most specific vitamins, minerals, or amino acids. I'm not saying that research is never done on ferrets, just that it isn't being done or published for the purpose of making better ferret foods, and none of it addresses these specifics.

The closest thing you could count would be any trial and error that Marshall farms does. A few food brands do feeding trails, but they only address questions such as "Will a ferret be healthy if it eats this food for half a year?" and don't touch on specifics like "What is the optimal amount of Vitamin A for a ferret?".

The very best that guide books and ferret food manufacturers can do is roughly extrapolate a ferret's nutritional needs from:

1. the most closely related species whose needs we DO know (ie. minks and cats)

2. the presumed makeup of the european polecats's diet.

Most ferret foods are simply modified mink or cat diets. For example, the two mentioned earlier (zupreem grain-free and EVO) are clearly modified (and unmodified) cat diets, and Marshall Premium Ferret Diet was put together from a mink diet in 1990.

For cats on the other hand, we have books such as Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats, which the AAFCO uses to make its Nutrient Profile for Cats. Take a minute to look through that nutrient profile page. Seriously, go do it; it'll only take a minute to do a quick glance. Then take a minute to think about the fact that there isn't one for ferrets. Companies can say that their ferret food is "complete and balanced" or "tailor made for a ferret's precise needs", without having to meet any such standards.

Honestly, any company could pour their kitten food into a different bag and print on it "tailor made for a ferret's precise needs" if they wanted to... and plenty of people would gladly believe it without a second thought. Why should these claims hold any weight?