i recently found an Exerpt in ferrets magizine that said that raisins may not be the best treat can anyone tell me why?

      thank you

         Paula

See its been awihle since you posted and this answer, but raisins are not a good treat because they are sugary. Even though ferrets DO have a sweet tooth - their systems are NOT designed to digest sugars and frequent treats of sugary items and even diets high in carbohydrates ( complex sugars) can cause major health issues for them later in life.

Health issues that sre showing up as insulinomia, pancreatitis and irritable bowel syndrome.

Try using meaty pieces for treats- either raw meaty bones and pieces or plain jerkified chicken, turkey, lamb, rabbit or beef, or make your own! I will thinly slice beef, gizzards, salmon, rabbit and lay them on a wax paper in my frost free freezer - within days I have a neat supply of freeze dried treats!

I also make a mix of various ground meats, plop spoonfuls into ice cube trays then once frozen I empty the cubes, slice them and lay out onto wax paper and allow to freeze dry for a couple weeks. - These make great nutritious "meaty tooth brushes" for your ferret to gnaw on.

I loaned out my food dehydrator, but when it gets returned, I can make air dried treats too.

Check the ingredients on your kibbles, and packaged treats - corn syrup, molasses, and glucose, sometimes even glycol are often added as sweeteners which keep the ferret coming back for more, but aren't ideal treats. Raisins, bananas, apples, carrots, blueberries, grapes, raspberries are NOT normal natural foods for ferrets - even though many of them WILL stash or even eat these things. Kind of like how people would rather eat a piece of fudge verses a brussle sprout - the sweet treat is preferable, but not nutritious.

Hope this helps!

Cheers! Kim

Josie made me do it! I had to build this just for her! www.vanityferret.com []