Hello, first of all, I was a bit worried that one of the folks on the net is
feeding his carpet sharks a lot of vitamins. The info on this is mixed and
(as far as I know) not well researched but we have been warned that ferrets
can be killed by vitamin A poisoning and that they get it easily.
[Our vet, who specializes in exotics and has written some papers on some
new techniques for working with ferrets, knows we give our ferrets linotone,
which contains vitamin A amongst other things (we think it's mostly cod-liver
oil). All he's said is don't give 'em very much. So do both of the ferret
books we have. Our ferrets are limited to 2 or 3 fingers (finger dipped in
the bottle and they lick it off) per day. Perhaps equivalent to 1-2 drops of
the stuff. That's the maximum. Sometimes they go for a week or more without
having any. Linotone is the only way we can get two of ours to stay
still enough to have their nails clipped.]
The warning about ferrets in heat is a good one.
Hale's problem was a very different one. She started it by failing to
produce any tears (at this point she was probably over seven years of age; we
got her as a quite mature adult and had her for something shy of 5 years).
Her standard vet could not find the answer so we traveled about 200 miles to
an eye specialist. (an aside here: it turns out that a large number of ferrets
bred in the Carolinas have a genetic predisposition to cataracts -- just a
random thing we learned from him) Hale turned out to have a failure of the
parasympathetic system, a condition which can also be seen in humans as
either the localized eye problem or as a more generalized condition where other
organs start to have difficulties. Hale's problem spread to her colon after
close to a quarter of a year. It was easy to treat her eyes to prevent sores
by using artificial tears, but there wasn't much anybody could do for her
ravaged gut. She had antibiotics whenever an infection set in, then live
culture yogurt to replace the needed bacteria killed by the antibiotics.
Cortizone cream took away most of the anal pain.. She finally died in her sleep
during one of the times when the secondary and tertiary problems were ebbing.
She was in a comfy sleep posture which was a comfort to me; she was in very
bad pain when ever her condition flared. Anyway, I hope that this helps
someone.
Has anyone else out there used tooth paste to discourage nipping? We have
found that the smell is so repulsive to them that it's an excellent training
aid. We've heard that bitter apple works.
[Bitter apple works quite well. Unfortunately, it disappears too fast to
be of any lasting deterrence]
Our new baby (purchased 2 weeks ago and named Helix) is already litter
trained and Hjalmer just plain hasn't had an accident in about one and a half
years. Fritter purposely has them, though. We use confinement when young.
lots of positive reinforcement when they use the pot helps a great deal. Our's
will push like blue blazes to get the effusive praise we give for pot use.
If you have your ferrets out at night watch out for owls!!!!! One dived us
when we were carrying Hale on a night walk. The only thing that got rid of it
was when I put her down the neck of my coat and made bird swallowing motions.
What toys do your critters like? We have pvc pipe runs, hanging bells (ones
they can't open and which are large),boxes, tubes, oatmeal containers, a
mail box, a truck, a kitty toy on an enormous spring, a sealed can with a bell
in it and covered with carpet, hard dog balls, plastic cap covers from non-
alcohol wine bottles (really cherished), dishes of water to drag, etc. Some
are in their romp rooms for when they are out and others are in their enormous
cages. Steve notes here that Hjalmar likes to press keys on the Mac keyboard
to change the resting display.
[We go for heavy duty squeaky dog toys - ours have destroyed all of the cat
toys - but we have to watch out for them pulling the squeaker out. Bald
tennis balls. Practice golf balls. Muppet babies. Grocery bags (both
paper and plastic). Balloons (not blown up very much so the inevitable
explosion doesn't scare 'em). (Note: this is all done under supervision,
so if they get into trouble we can rescue 'em. Have never had to though -
except the occasional time somebody gets snagged in one of their towels -
we've just started using old velvetine and this has eliminated the problem)]
Has anyone gotten rug weasels to ENJOY bathes? How?
[Enjoy no. Tolerate yes. And we reward them afterwards with treats and
linotone (so's the experience ain't all bad)]
Sukie Crandall
ihnp4!mhuxt!evans
[Posted in FML 0005]
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