Re: Pretty bird food: our ferrets vary in acceptance.  Ashling won't eat
it; she eats around it.  Sherman preferentially selects it and ignores
other things in the mix; he thrives on it.  Whizbang and Hilbert like it
as well as any other foods in our mix.
 
In the earlier version we have the food has sort of a fruit plus
chicken plus a touch of yeast smell.  Yeast is the typical source for
nucleotides.  We've got a batch of nucleotide powder here (Ashling is
getting it as part of a soup during her recovery.) and it smells sort
of like Brewers Yeast (but not as bad to me) and a touch smokey-ish.  I
suspect the fruit scent was added to over the yeast part of the smell,
but I don't know.  so that it just a wild guess.
 
Almost all of the protein in the food comes from the chicken.
 
Fiber levels can be kept low and carbohydrate levels can be kept low due
to a combination of a new type of processing equipment and the selection
of certain large-molecule sources of those.
 
Finding vets who have been recommended by ferret people:
 
http://www.ferretcongress.org (crit. refs.)
http://www.smartgroups.com/vault/ferrethealth/ReferenceShelf/FerretVets.htm
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/vets/ Search by zip code, read FAQ first.
http://www.quincyweb.net/quincy/vet.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/vets.htm
http://www.ferretcentral.org/for-others/db-vets.html
http://www.geocities.com/houseferrets13uk/Vets.html UK vets
http://www.ferrets.org/Veterinarian_Listings.htm British Columbia vets
http://supportourshelters.org
and also sites and clubs which cover your local area, state, or region
 
There are probably further resources of which I am unaware.
 
Sleep: Gary, past studies have shown that ferrets not only sleep more
than we do but spend more time in REM sleep, so they have both more time
in REM sleep and in non-REM sleep (Non-REM time is when the body does a
lot of its repair work.).  This is not a surprise since the amount of
total sleep is related to the metabolism (more sleep for higher metabolic
rates) and the REM sleep time level relates to level of development at
birth (lower level of development at birth for more REM time -- with the
platypus having the most REM time so far known in mammals).
 
I know of no reason to think that any dreams any other animals may have
during REM sleep are any less elaborate than our's are.  They could
easily be every bit as elaborate but in ways that reflect a ferret's
experience of the word such as more smell emphasis.
 
Yes, we have seen some behaving as if they are having nightmares, and
know of no reason to think that they don't have them now or then.
 
The amount of good sleep with is NEEDED for good health varies among
species.  If humans were stuck trying to adjust to the 3 hours elephants
need each night we'd be sick as can be.  Ferrets on average NEED 14+
hours every day; it is what their bodies require for decent health.
 
If you think other mammals are unusual then read up on single brain-
hemisphere sleep work in birds.
 
ENOUGH quality sleep without a lot of avoidable disturbances
(loud music, etc.) and real darkness are parts of having a
ferret-healthy-ferret-friendly household which may be forgotten too
often.
[Posted in FML issue 4304]