Hi.  Just some suggestions for Misty and her new ferret (congrats, by the
way!):
 
RE:  Bedding.  I would stop using newspaper stuff for bedding.
 
It's very messy and hard to keep clean, and it gets really stinky really
fast.  Our ferret came with some of that and in addition to it stinking
up the room and causing HIM to get stinky, since it retains more smells,
he tracked it everywhere.  You're better off with old towels, T-shirts,
blankets, etc.  It's more comfortable for your ferret, easier to clean,
and cannot be tracked all over your house.  (Well, they can be dragged all
over your house...) Also, you don't end up continually spending money to
buy new bedding all the time-we had an extensive old towel collection, and
our babies tend to prefer towels for bedding, though they do love their
hammy!)
 
RE: Litter.  We use Yesterday's News and similar recycled newspaper pellet
litters.  No dust, no irritation for the ferrets, less stink (doesn't
absorb scents as much as paper bedding for some reason), easy to scoop out
poop and wet spots, flushable, and doesn't get tracked all over the house,
either.  (And if you save the Yesterday's News UPCs, you can send them in
when you have six from the same size bag to get a bag of that size free-
we send our UPCs to a shelter.  Cool, huh?  I can't find the address rigt
now-maybe that person will repost it?)  It's good for the environment,
too-it's recycling and it's biodegradable (though most litters are).
 
Can't help you with the Fero-Vite problem.  We've never tried it, but our
ferts love Ferretone.
 
As for water, our Nicky loves to get in it, too, especially if he puts
himself in it instead of us.  If you want to see a picture of HIM
swimming in the tub when he was eight weeks old, go to
http://www.sofla.com/services/pets/slides/contest_other3.html
 or
http://www.gopbi.com/services/pets/slides/contest_other3.html
 
He is in a photo contest to try and win prize money for a shelter.  You can
vote for him twice in an hour at each site while you're there!
 
RE: Treats.  Besides beer, coffee, chocolate, vanilla cream people cookies
and other things they really want but can't have :), our ferrets really
love 8 in 1's banana raisin treats (they look like Pounce cat treats, etc.)
and peanut butter Yogis in addition to their ferretone.  They say that you
can let them have a little tiny bit of almost anything you can have in
moderation, with obvious exceptions like caffeine, chocolate, alcohol, etc.
They can't really digest much in the way of veggies and fruits, but once
in a while won't be bad for most.  Nicodemus loves tomatoes/mild salsa,
grapefruit (of all things), crackers, anything in a glass/cup for the sake
of being able to drink from a glass/cup, broccoli.  Finnegan really doesn't
have much interest in anything other than grapes and ferret-specific treats
(which is just fine), but he does love to take any kind of food from me
(french fries one by one till the box is empty, for example, or an entire
stalk of broccoli from my pizza) and store it under my computer desk or
behind our hamper (until a month ago, neither of them even HAD a
hidey-hole, now they stow everything there).  They also both just about
knock each other and you over for a few pellets of Old Mill ferret food,
which I got a sample of and am researching more before I try mixing it in
with our two other foods.  At least I know they like it!
 
Well, hope all this helps you and anyone else with similar questions!
 
Dooks!     -April, with Finnegan and Nicodemus
[Posted in FML issue 3407]