More Dooks Oils

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

Ferretone and Other Oil Treats

Ferretone is an oil and vitamin treat/supplement that comes in two brands: the original 'ferretone' from 8-in-1 brand, and Marshall brand 'furo-tone'. Both are a mix of vegetable oil, cod liver oil, and vitamins.

Because ferretone's guaranteed analysis is listed as "per 3/4 tsp" and furo-tone's is "per 1 tsp", I have converted the 8-in-1 ferretone, and both are listed as "per tsp" in the comparison chart below¹:

Among ferret owners, the two largest concerns with commercial oil supplements or treats are typically:

1. Preservatives

2. Vitamin A or D toxicity

Using Other Oils as Treats

Some ferret owners choose to skip the commercial oil treats and simply offer fish and/or vegetable oils (or homemade oil mixes) to their ferrets. This gives them more control to choose vitamin levels, choose Omega 3 and 6 levels, avoid certain preservatives, and can also prove much less expensive. Most ferrets will gladly accept a variety of oils as 'treats'.

*TIP- fish oils can be purchased at some pet supply stores, but also at regular 'human' pharmacies.

Softgel capsules are also often used for ferrets- simply poke a hole in the end of the with capsule pin or needle, and squeeze the capsule to drip the oil out.

Here is a comparsion chart for assorted fish and vegetable oils and ferretones.^1,2

All values are listed as per teaspoon.

Vitamin A Toxicity for the Cautious

*****Notes before reading*****

· pay close attention to units, it is often easy to confuse IU/kg body weight and IU/kg food.

· These calculations require some estimation, so consider them with a grain of salt

· I know that Vitamin A is typically measured in RE or RAE these days, but I have to use IU because that's what pet food labels use.

How much is too much?

There are no AAFCO nutrient profiles for ferrets, and in several hours of research I was unable to find any reported claim for a daily maximum vitamin A tolerance for ferrets. This means it is likely that no one has done the research to determine this, and that the best I can offer is comparisons from other species. Here's what I was able to find:

- According to the AAFCO nutrient profiles for cat food, a food must contain at least 9,000 IU/kg of food to be considered suitable for kittens, and no more than 750,000 IU/kg is allowed. Lower amounts are given for dogs: 5,000-250,000 IU.³

- The book "Nutrient requirements of dogs and cats" by the National Research Council proposed 213,333 IU (64,000 micrograms retinol) per kg of food as a safe upper limit for dogs, based on several studies⁴

- According to the FDA, "The lowest reported adverse effect level (of Vitamin A) in experimental animals appears to be in the range 25,000 to 60,000 IU per kg body weight per day for periods of 3 to 5 weeks".⁵ Note that carnivores are known to tolerate much higher levels of vitamin A than non-carnivores, and they did not describe which species were studied.

How much does a ferret get in their regular diet?

Here's some math to determining how much Vitamin A a ferret gets from their kibble alone:

- Doing a quick sweep of a few foods, it seems most weigh approximately 90-150 grams per cup.

- Generously assuming a ferret eats about 1/2 cup of food per day, that means eating up to 75g of food (150g/cup x 0.5 cups = 75g).

- 750,000 IU per kg = 750 IU per gram of food. 750 IU/g x 75g = 56,250 IU

Therefore, a ferret eating an AAFCO approved kitten food that is as high in vitamin A as is permitted could be at most consuming as much as to 56,250 IU of vitamin A per day.

At a more average food density (120g/cup = 60g food/day), they would be consuming as much as to 45,000 IU of vitamin A per day.

Most foods do not cite Vitamin A levels in their guaranteed analysis. The few I could find (innova EVO, natural gold, orijen, nutrience, eagle pack) varied from 15,000 - 26,000IU/kg , meaning the ferret would be consuming up to 1,560 IU of vitamin A per day.

I would assume that for a food to reach AAFCO maximum levels, it would have to be liver-based, and heavily supplemented with liver oils and vitamin A supplements.

TL;DR, Conversions, and Simplification

I realize that that's a lot of numbers to look at, so I'll provide a summary of everything I just said:

The following table shows the minimum amount of vitamin A found in different quantities of a few foods (ones that provided enough information):

Conclusion

I'm not going to tell anyone what I think the maximum amount of Vitamin A a ferret can consume daily is. Existing information is not complete enough for me to make that call.

I will however say, that I believe with standard foods (~25,000 IU/kg Vitamin A), ferretone as directed or even a couple teaspoons of cod liver oil should not pose a threat of vitamin A toxicity. I would however be cautious regarding vitamin D toxicity.

Vitamin D Toxicity for the Cautious

*****Notes before reading*****

· pay close attention to units, it is often easy to confuse IU/kg body weight, IU/kg food, and IU/1000 kcal of food.

· These calculations require some estimation, so consider them with a grain of salt

How much is too much?

Again, there are no AAFCO nutrient profiles for ferrets, or available information regarding suggested maximum Vitamin D intake levels. Here's what I found regarding other species:

- According to the AAFCO nutrient profiles for cat food, a food must contain at least 750 IU/kg of food to be considered suitable for kittens, and no more than 10,000 IU/kg is allowed. For dogs: 500 - 5,000 IU.³

- The book "Nutrient requirements of dogs and cats" by the National Research Council proposed 440 IU to 1100 (11-27.5 micrograms cholecalciferol) per 1000 kcal of food (~1760-4400 IU/kg food) as a safe upper limit for dogs, and no more than 800 IU (20 micrograms cholecalciferol) per 1000 kcal food (~3200 IU/kg food) for growing puppies. ⁴

- The book "Nutrient requirements of dogs and cats" by the National Research Council cites that only one study has been performed to estimate a safe dietary maximum dietary concentration of vitamin D. This study reported that cats and kittens did not show any adverse clinical signs, given a diet of 33840 IU (840 micrograms cholecalciferol) per kg of food for 18 months⁴

- One study found that 5 cats showing symptoms of vitamin D toxicity were fed a diet containing 63,700 IU of vitamin D per kg food since a young age⁶

- "Vitamin Tolerance of Animals" summarizes the effects of various vitamin D levels on various species from available studies. The mammalian carnivores presented were:

Foxes: showed adverse signs at 5,000 IU/kg body weight (0.125 mg/kg) for 3 months and some died at 10,000 IU/kg body weight(0.250 mg/kg).⁷

Mink: showed no effect at 7,000 - 15, 000 IU/kg body weight (0.175-0.375 mg/kg) for 2-3 weeks. ⁷ I think I may want to consider this to be less relevant however, due to the short trial (2-3 weeks) and the fact that mink are designed to eat fish-based diets, which may be naturally higher in vitamin D.

How much does a ferret get in their regular diet?

Here's some math to determining how much Vitamin D a ferret gets from their kibble alone:

- Most kitten foods weigh approximately 90-150 grams per cup.

- Generously assuming a ferret eats about 1/2 cup of food per day, that means eating roughly 60g of food (120g/cup x 0.5 cups = 60g).

- 10,000 IU per kg = 10 IU per gram of food. 10 IU/g x 60g = 600 IU

Therefore, a ferret eating an AAFCO approved kitten food that is as high in vitamin D as is permitted could be consuming up to 600 IU of vitamin D per day.

Most foods do not cite Vitamin D levels in their guaranteed analysis. The few I could find (Innova EVO, Orijen, Nutrience, Serengetti) varied from 1200 - 2,400 IU/kg. Natural Gold ferret food is 32,000 IU/kg, 3 times the allowed amount in "complete and balanced" cat or kitten food.

It appears that reaching high-end levels of vitamin D is much more common than vitamin A, calling for extra caution in foods not adhering to feline AAFCO nutrient profiles.

TL;DR, Conversions, and Simplification

I realize that that's a lot of numbers to look at, here's another summary:

The following table shows the minimum amount of vitamin D found in different quantities of a few foods (ones that provided enough information):

Conclusion

I'm not going to tell anyone what the maximum amount of Vitamin D a ferret can consume daily is. Existing information is not complete enough for me to make that call.

Clearly this topic if fairly complex; with pet food standards and proposed upper limits being quite low compared to research on the topic, I'm lead to wonder if I may be missing a piece of the puzzle. The final call is yours to make. My personal opinion is:

If I'm putting my faith in the small number of animal studies and trials I was able to dig up, I would try to limit a ferret's vitamin D intake to no more than 2,000 IU/day if they eat 1/2 cup food per day, or 1,000 IU/day if they eat 1/4 cup per day.

This means, I would presume 1-2 teaspoons of cod liver oil/day to be safe if the ferret is on a food that is AAFCO approved for kittens. Ferretone could safely be used as directed.

If I'm being extra cautious and following the AAFCO guildelines from within my treat regime, I would restrict cod liver oil to 1/2 teaspoon daily, and only allow that as long as the ferret is on a food with standard vitamin D levels (~less than 2,500 IU/kg). With such foods, ferretone should probably still be safe to use as directed.

Either way, I would not give pure cod liver oil to a ferret that is fed a "ferret food", or any other food without an AAFCO adequacy statement- UNLESS they provide a claim for vitamin D and it falls suitably below 10,000 IU/kg.

References

1. Ferretone (8-in-1 pet products) and Furo-tone (Marshall pet products) bottle labels

2. nutritiondata.org

3. Official 2008 AAFCO nutrient profiles for dogs and cats, sourced from peteducation.com

4. National Research Council (U.S.): Ad Hoc Committee on Dog and Cat Nutrition. 2006. Nutrient requirements of dogs and cats. National Academies Press.

5. Database of Select Committee on GRAS Substances (SCOGS) Reviews: Vitamin A, sourced from FDAwebsite

6. Morita T, Awakura T, Shimada A, Umemura T, Nagai T, Haruna A. 1995. Vitamin D toxicosis in cats: natural outbreak and experimental study. The Journal of veterinary medical science 57(5):831-7.

7. National Research Council (U.S.): Subcommittee on Vitamin Tolerance, Committee on Animal Nutrition. 1987. Vitamin Tolerance of Animals. Accessed Online.