If you're a ferret owner, you've probably heard of this brand. Everyone recommends it other ferret owners, large ferret "influencers", ferret knowledgeable vets... why is this food spoken so highly of in the ferret community? It's put on such a pedestal that many will only recommend this food and nothing else. Everything else is seen as unfit for ferret consumption. Wysong's Ferret Epigen 90 Digestive Support is a high protein, starch free ferret food, formulated with added probiotics to help aid in digestion. The guaranteed analysis is... Protein 62% Fat 16% Fiber 5% Moisture 10% Taurine 0.2% When looking at just the analysis, the protein percentage is very high. It should be at least 34%, so it has definitely hit the mark. The fat percentage is low, 20% being the minimum for ferrets. Fiber is right on the maximum amount a ferret should eat in a dry food. I'm going to go over the ingredients I find to be problematic.
Chicken Meal Chicken meal is a rendered ingredient. It's a powdery substance created from the cooked parts of animals followed by baking the residue. It's cooked twice, once for rendering and another when the kibble is made. Not all meals are created equal, it depends on the raw materials used to make it. It can be "from high quality, deboned chicken breasts, much like the kind you would find in a grocery store, or it could be made from the entire carcasses of spent egg farm hens at the end of their productive cycle." Unfortunately, there is no way to know if the meal used in pet food is good or poor quality. We also do not know what type of rendering facility is creating this product. Here's some photos taken by a neighbor of an independent rendering facility used to make meat meal. Dried Plain Beet Pulp Beet pulp is a cheap filler ingredient used for fiber. This is an indigestible fiber, and not used for any nutritive value to the ferret. It's two purposes are to provide nutrition for the probiotics, and to bulk stools. This food is on the higher end of fiber and that's due to the amount of added probiotics at the end of the ingredient list. This bacteria feeds on the beet pulp. In a food high in insoluble fiber, it can run the risk of "interfering with your pet's ability to digest and assimilate important nutrients like protein and minerals." Apple Pectin Another fiber ingredient, derived from apples. Can cause GI upset. Flaxseeds These are high in Omega 3s and fiber. This is obviously not a natural product a ferret would come across and eagerly consume. Ferrets are meat eaters. They lack the biological composition required to properly digest seeds and get any benefits. I call this an empty ingredient, due to the fact that Omega 3s already come from the fish oils added to the food. Choline Chloride Source of B vitamins. "Meat based diets that contain liver will meet or exceed AAFCO and FEDIAF minimum recommendations for choline." Diets lacking in organ meat will need some sort of choline added to the food. Personally, I would only feed a dry diet that contained real organ meat (and there are many out there that do!) Coconut Oil The "wonder" product. Used in beauty products, healthcare, supplements and more. This product is a favorite among many people. But it does not have a place in our ferret's food. There is no real evidence that shows any benefits for obligate carnivores. It's an added fat that we know can cause GI upset, and aggravate conditions such as IBD and pancreatitis (read more on added fats here) I am unsure why they would want to put fruit oil in their food. Another empty ingredient. Yeast Extract This is an additive to enhance the food's palatability. It is a cheap, non nutritive and unnatural source of flavorings. It is also a probiotic and prebiotic. MSG (monosodium glutamate) by law, "does not have to appear on pet food ingredient labels, you can often find it in these ambiguous ingredients: hydrolyzed protein protein isolate, texturized protein, natural flavors, autolyzed yeast, hydrolyzed yeast, yeast extracts, soy extracts or concentrate, sodium caseinate, calcium caseinate, monopotassium glutamate, glutamate, or glutanic acid, disodium inosinate or guaylate." According to that statement, Wysong contains many sources of MSG. meat protein isolate, natural flavor, and yeast extract. Flavor enhancers used to make up for the lack of flavor in low quality product. MSG is also a known common allergen. Rosemary Extract Used as a cheap natural preservative. There is evidence that supports the dangers of this ingredient. Rosemary extract has caused seizures in cats and small dogs. It is not considered a safe ingredient. This can be found in pet food, fish oils, and even raw meat at the grocery store. Reviews A common theme with their reviews on Amazon is the formula change. These reviews vary from very recently, back to 2014. This food has been giving ferrets problems for around 6 years now and nothing has been done. I scrolled by many reviews blaming Wysong on the death of their ferrets, passing away from Irritable Bowel Syndrome. See for yourself. According to my findings, the "digestive support" variation of Epigen 90 is most similar to the original formulation. However, many people as noted in the reviews and others that have posted elsewhere, and from my own personal experience, the digestive support is giving ferrets the same issues. Consumers were clearly not made aware of any formula change. I tried to find a statement made by Wysong on this issue, and found a post made by them here. It does not mention any specifics, just that changes are not profit motivated, packaging may need altercations...nothing on the specifics. Pet food companies can change formulas at any given moment, and they are not required to tell consumers! You are expected to inspect every single bag of food you purchase for any changes. For example, very recently Instinct Ultimate Protein (another food rated high for ferrets) decided to make tapioca the second ingredient in the food! An incredibly dangerous ingredient for pets. In ferrets, carbs and starch are linked to Insulinoma. Consumers were not made aware of this change. More recently, there have been multiple reports of foreign objects found in Wysong ferret food including; dead mice, metal pieces, nails, plastic and more. My personal experience I fed Wysong Epigen 90 Digestive Support to my ferrets for many weeks before switching them to raw (2019) I followed the proper transition steps to avoid GI upset. Pazu and Howl had chronic diarrhea, seedy, pungent stools (undigested fats / proteins) that smelled like metal. I still have that smell ingrained in my memory. I had to scrub it from every litter pan after they had diarrhea everywhere daily. My ferrets also showed a lack of energy, and they were not excited about this food at all. The second day on raw, stools had gone back to normal and they had bountiful energy. They also were excited about food again. After asking about it online, I had many ferret owners reach out to me with similar experiences. My end thoughts are Wysong Epigen 90 Digestive Support is not a high quality product. Anyone who says so, is lying. The cheap filler and empty ingredients are enough evidence to say this is a low quality food being sold at a high price. Like with most things, there are ferrets that do fine on this food, but there are many that don't. We can't ignore the facts, just because your ferrets are doing "fine" does not mean they are thriving.
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