Is it possible for ferrets to get food poisoning?

[ferretlover01]

Hi,
i was just wondering that i know that some ppl on this forum feed their ferrets raw meat. and i was wondering if it is possible for ferrets to get food poisoning.
I know its not pleasent for ppl to get food poisoning so i know it wouldn't be very pleasent for ferret fuzzies to get it.
thnx,
ferretlover01

[sherrylynne]

Things like salmonella take 6-8 hours to mature in the gut, and that's the one people usually get. From the time a ferret eats, til the time they poop it out, it's 3-4 hours. Not nearly long enough for it to affect them. So, to that one, it's a no. Ferties, as a rule, won't get salmonella from raw, fresh meat. I leave mine out for up to twelve hours, with no problems at all.
Because the entire digestive system is so short and direct, they don't often get any of the bugs that would bug us , so I wouldn't worry about that at all.

[Heather]

Ferrets like most carnivores are geared to handle meats that might not be good for us to eat Most bacteria have to ferment in the digestive track. For example salmonella requires 6 to 8 hrs in the digestive system to become active. A ferrets digestive track is one of the shortest systems, it's basically in one end and out the other in 3 to 4 hrs. Your ferret is geared not only to eat meat but to be able to eat old meat that it's stashed for times when it can't find food to eat. Dogs and cats both have the ability to eat and digest diseased meats, so do ferrets. The only caution that I might add to this is that meat and kibble digest at different rates, which is why one should always be careful about feeding them both at the same time. Kibble can slow the digestive process down (it digests slower because it's very hard for ferrets to digest kibble). Raw meat digests faster and is easily assimilated by a ferret's body. Kibble can slow the process down enough to cause a ferret to have digestive difficulties which is why we try not to feed both at the same time for long periods of time.
On very rare occasions ferret can and do develop digestive issues caused by bacteria overgrowth in their system. They can become very ill, this occurs only rarely and in over 11 yrs of feeding a totally raw diet I've not encountered this problem. I've treated a number of ferrets with immune suppressed systems who have lived and thrived on raw diets despite their health problems (lymphomas, cardio myopathy, juvenile lymphomas, IBD) Many of these ferrets were treated with immune suppressing drugs but still managed to eat and digest a raw diet
Just my experiences
ciao