Amanda writes:
>I've heard good and bad things about them.  Can someone clue me in.  I
>heard ferrets love them but I also heard that they are a massive PAIN!
>That they get all gooey and the ferret gets terribly sticky and gross.
>I think they sound neat and would like to get Dante some.  Are they worth
>the mess?
 
We like them!  Maybe you should try just a mini pack at first to find
your own ferret's quirks?
 
We've never had that sticky trouble with them in all of these years, but
have heard of a friend's ferret who liked to soak them and if she didn't
catch them fast enough would sleep with them; that one got sticky.  Her
other ones never did that.  Think it's an individual quirk thing.  Our only
problem is that Jumpstart eats too much at one sitting and gets runs now
and then, but he's prone to foul teeth if he doesn't get his chews and the
Cheweasels have made cleanings unnecessary for him so far which means fewer
times in the hospital under anesthesia.
 
Speaking of the importance of dental care: most of us have known since
sometime last year or the year before (or whenever it made the general
science press), that in humans, at least, gum disease can lead to heart
problems.  Recently read an article in the NY Times Science Section on
important autopsy findings that advanced knowledge or clarified a cause
of death, and would not have been learned about otherwise, and found out
that serious gun infections can also lead to the diseases sometimes passing
through to the brain from the sinuses and causing abscesses there (Rare but
it turns out that one of our dentists also encountered it when she was a
hospital dentist for a short while in recent years.) Don't know if ferrets
can have the same sorts of complications to gum disease but dental health
sure is important.
[Posted in FML issue 3313]