Ferreter writes
>It is natural for ferret kits to pile weight on during the winter months;
>probably goes back to the ferrets' wild ancestor, the survival of the
>fattest during the lean times ahead.  The kits lose the extra weight in
>the spring, and, in my experience, never again reach the weight they
>attained during their first winter.
 
That makes sense and explains my Buttons.  From a private breeder, he was
born in spring and neutered at 6 months.  His first winter he went up to
nearly 4 lbs and I thought I was going to have a porker.  But he went way
down the next spring, and has always been on the thin side since then,
running around 2.75 lbs.
 
Buttons, now 5 1/2, is a cinnamon blaze with Wardenburgs syndrome, deaf
as a post!  One of the less common symptoms is the inability to open the
jaws as wide as normal.  It makes eating kibble difficult, and he spends
longer at the food bowl that the others.  I supplement him regularly with
Bob's chicken gravy.
 
Linda Iroff
Oberlin OH
[Posted in FML issue 3973]