I'll first give my credentials because it seems that they have great
meaning to some people:
 
RN, Dip AppSc, Dip EnvSc, Dip Phys, Dip Chem, Dip Biol.  And they are
all meaningless because they don't apply directly to ferrets.  (although
they may have improved my powers of observation)
 
My greatest ferret education began about 12 years ago when I happened
across the first of many ferrets and really began to observe them.  I
also took the opportunity to meet, handle, rescue, board, breed and
talk about multitudes of other ferrets from all different types of
environments.  ie diet and housing.  I also take in the aged, frail,
unwell and biters.  So, while I don't have a formal training on ferrets,
I consider myself "experienced." Not an expert, just experienced.
 
If you consider that anything I write from now on can't be very
meaningful, please don't read on.
 
(To those who also subscribe to the FHL, sorry to repeat myself)
 
My house, because of skylights and windows is a bit like a forest.  As
well as living in the "forest", my ferrets have access to outdoors 24/7
which is open to the sky.  Indoors they have access to dark cosy sleeping
quarters and outside they have very deep self-dug tunnels.  Guess what?
They BASK in the sunshine, they sleep in a sun-dappled laundry, they
dance for joy on frost covered grass as the sun rises, frolic in the dirt
under a sunny sky and they snooze at the sunny entrance to their burrows.
Get the picture?  :-) Only as the temperature rises do the move deeper
into their burrows or seek shade in the air conditioned "forest".
 
My house lights frequently blaze all night.  (I suspect the reason that
this doesn't affect the ferrets is because they are receiving natural
lighting during the day and thus artificial lighting is meaningless.)
 
Two shelter moms have now cited instances where exposure to natural
lighting has had balding ferrets re-grow their coats.
 
Perhaps those poor little ferrets that do not have access to natural
lighting may need to have a NIGHTTIME period of uninterrupted complete
darkness, but certainly not otherwise.
 
I think to keep any living organism, apart from cave dwellers, in
complete darkness is horribly dangerous.
 
Shirley
Always for the Ferrets
[Posted in FML issue 5194]