Post by Sherry on Jan 16, 2011 17:00:07 GMT -5
Written by josiesmom:
Showing the real "poop" on the safety of feeding mice to your ferrets. Kibbles fed to your ferret come out practically the same way they went in - grainy, rough, sand papery, coarse granular just not in the same shape.
These course granular masses scrape and drag through your ferret's innards as the digestive tract desperately tries to glean nutrients from the foreign plant sources and mysterious meat by products. This assault on your ferret's digestive tract causes problems from beginning to end!
The teeth when crunching kibble have to constantly crack bone hard dry pieces into smaller pieces. The ferret has no molars really to grind this hardened crunchy stuff, so the small bits get swallowed whole. Sometimes a broken piece of kibble lodges in the roof of the ferret's mouth.
Because the kibble splits apart when the ferret's teeth cleave into it, only the tips and very ends of the teeth get "cleaned". Leaving the gumline and upper part of the teeth to become encrusted with plaque, tartar and calculus, the gums get gingivitis.
The dry kibble scrapes down through the esophagus into the stomach. Because the ferret's system cannot glean appropraite nutrients from the kibble the ferret sits at the food dish and gorges himself. When done eating the dry crunchies the ferret gets a drink of water.
The water swallowed enters the stomach and the dry kibbles swell, the swelling may trigger the stomach to empty its contents quickly, dumping only partially digested granular foods into the short digestive tract. This partially digested form stresses an already overworked absorption system.
Repeat performances of this assault and stress contribute to (if not causes) severe health problems like insulinoma - a cancer of the pancreas, IBS- Irritated Bowel Syndrome) In a mere three hours the kibble devoured at the bowl is expelled in a dry, grainy, thick, mass that can be difficult to expel, sometimes resulting in a prolapsed rectum!
This horrible situation gets repeated every 3 to 4 hours, ie. 6 to 8 times a day!
Compare that to a natural meal in the form of a mouse:
Ferret's teeth cleave cleanly through the moist meaty body of the mouse. the teeth points easily puncture the soft skin and tissues, sinking completely up to the gum line, the interior and exteriors of the teeth get completely utilized as well as polished, the gums become stimulated by the rubbing meat.
The ferret repositions the mouse to get a better grip and crunches easily through the mouse bones while the meat, skin and fur continue to polish the teeth to a pearly white brilliance. Moist bites get swallowed and slip into the stomach. The ferret may only eat the head of the mouse at this sitting, he may eat the entire thing, today he eats the entire mouse.
The stomach's acids quickly go to work dissolving the connective tissues and starting to work on the meaty tissues. The stomach empties at a normal rate into the digestive tract. The digestive tract continues what the stomach started and within a few short hours the remains of the mouse are ready to expel. The remains have been pushed, and rolled and peristalsis has twisted the fur around and around the sharp indigestible claws, teeth and large bone shards so all that gets pushed easily out is a slippery cottony soft packet!
Because the digestive tract has managed to extract high quality REAL nutrients from the body of the mouse, the ferret's body doesn't trigger another hunger response! Instead typically the ferret either plays for an hour or so after going potty, or curls up for a digestive snooze!
Showing the real "poop" on the safety of feeding mice to your ferrets. Kibbles fed to your ferret come out practically the same way they went in - grainy, rough, sand papery, coarse granular just not in the same shape.
These course granular masses scrape and drag through your ferret's innards as the digestive tract desperately tries to glean nutrients from the foreign plant sources and mysterious meat by products. This assault on your ferret's digestive tract causes problems from beginning to end!
The teeth when crunching kibble have to constantly crack bone hard dry pieces into smaller pieces. The ferret has no molars really to grind this hardened crunchy stuff, so the small bits get swallowed whole. Sometimes a broken piece of kibble lodges in the roof of the ferret's mouth.
Because the kibble splits apart when the ferret's teeth cleave into it, only the tips and very ends of the teeth get "cleaned". Leaving the gumline and upper part of the teeth to become encrusted with plaque, tartar and calculus, the gums get gingivitis.
The dry kibble scrapes down through the esophagus into the stomach. Because the ferret's system cannot glean appropraite nutrients from the kibble the ferret sits at the food dish and gorges himself. When done eating the dry crunchies the ferret gets a drink of water.
The water swallowed enters the stomach and the dry kibbles swell, the swelling may trigger the stomach to empty its contents quickly, dumping only partially digested granular foods into the short digestive tract. This partially digested form stresses an already overworked absorption system.
Repeat performances of this assault and stress contribute to (if not causes) severe health problems like insulinoma - a cancer of the pancreas, IBS- Irritated Bowel Syndrome) In a mere three hours the kibble devoured at the bowl is expelled in a dry, grainy, thick, mass that can be difficult to expel, sometimes resulting in a prolapsed rectum!
This horrible situation gets repeated every 3 to 4 hours, ie. 6 to 8 times a day!
Compare that to a natural meal in the form of a mouse:
Ferret's teeth cleave cleanly through the moist meaty body of the mouse. the teeth points easily puncture the soft skin and tissues, sinking completely up to the gum line, the interior and exteriors of the teeth get completely utilized as well as polished, the gums become stimulated by the rubbing meat.
The ferret repositions the mouse to get a better grip and crunches easily through the mouse bones while the meat, skin and fur continue to polish the teeth to a pearly white brilliance. Moist bites get swallowed and slip into the stomach. The ferret may only eat the head of the mouse at this sitting, he may eat the entire thing, today he eats the entire mouse.
The stomach's acids quickly go to work dissolving the connective tissues and starting to work on the meaty tissues. The stomach empties at a normal rate into the digestive tract. The digestive tract continues what the stomach started and within a few short hours the remains of the mouse are ready to expel. The remains have been pushed, and rolled and peristalsis has twisted the fur around and around the sharp indigestible claws, teeth and large bone shards so all that gets pushed easily out is a slippery cottony soft packet!
Because the digestive tract has managed to extract high quality REAL nutrients from the body of the mouse, the ferret's body doesn't trigger another hunger response! Instead typically the ferret either plays for an hour or so after going potty, or curls up for a digestive snooze!
