Most of the time our crew is out in safely *****ferret proofed*****
rooms (no yard here so not even an option to consider) but at night
they go into a covered multi story cage. Actually, they like their
cage well enough that some prefer napping in there, too.

Why the cage at night? Because we know what it is like to have
someone's thermostat repair at the furnace side accidently start a fire
in the building; it would have been worse if the same mistake in her
condo had caught first. Most of our crew come to us pretty readily when
there is a sudden loss of electricity, smoke, the alarms are going off,
and/or sirens are all around (There were three smoke or fire or fume
situations within a short time that year.) but not all ferrets come
readily enough and one is complete scardy who puts himself as far as
he can under a trunk in one room. If a fire happens at night, given
the reduce visibility of darkness, smoke, and perhaps even loss of
electricity despite emergency lights in multiple electrical sockets we
want to be able to have the best chance of saving all. If you also have
those plug in emergency lights check them periodically because they
give no indication when the light fails to work.

Why not in the cage when at least one of us is home or we are away for
only short periods? Because study after study after study has shown the
importance of exercise to multiple aspects of health in a huge range of
mammals.

So, it is NOT an either/or question when cages AND free roam are
brought up. We have found a combo to provide the best result in safety
and exercise for our crew.

Speaking of saving all in fire situations: this is great time to
exchange emergency tips.

Two are that if you have to throw together some extras at the last
minute the fastest thing to use is often a pillowcase, and if you can
keep an evacuation cage handy that is a good thing. We have one right
on top of their nighttime cage.

Here's a huge one:  check out this website:
http://www.ferretemergency.org/ .

We prefer to never have more than 7 ferrets in our family at a given
time and even more prefer to have no more than 6 at a time. That is
because we've had ferrets for over 25 years and we know how much
individual attention we prefer to give each one combined with how much
time we have, the limits of our living situation, the limits of our
current distance from their vet, the limits of our own physical
capabilities, and how expensive careful medical care is. Heck, before
the Labs went away (no more high steady income from Steve's inventions)
we purposely took in deformed ferrets who were unlikely to find a home
anywhere else. One of them ran us about $11,500 in medical care over
his lifetime. (Some free ferret, right? LOL!) Still, there are people
here who have paid more for things like pacemakers for ferrets. In our
area we expect to spent an average at least $5,000 per ferret (It seems
to have gone up again in recent years so we think the expectations have
to be more carefully done again.) for a lifetime's medical care. Just
the canine distemper vax and complete biannual exams (medical and
dental) for 5 recently ran about $300 and we get a special client
discount given that we can and do help with info resources and the
like. Oh, there is another important reason we keep the numbers
smaller, and also usually keep the ages pretty diverse (though our
current crew is less that way). We know what it is like to have more
than one severely ill one at a time, and deaths close together. No
wonder so many people first go too hog wild for ferret math and then
stop them abruptly or when the last one dies. Just the pain of having
many sick at once and dying becomes too much. Some people can cope with
many ferrets, but I've been on the FML from the very beginning and one
of the most common patterns for people who stop having ferrets is this:
get too many too close together in age, become unable to afford medical
care, have the ferrets dying close together too young. It has happened
over and over and over. So very many of those people would still have
ferrets if they has no more than 3 to 5 for their first 7 years or so,
and then knew from experience where they personally should keep their
own numbers, having had experience with the needs. They always loved
ferrets but they became overwhelmed.

Typo:  I wrote:
>BTW, for anyone who worries: she wiring work was done long
>BEFORE that ring was used so risk of radioactive exposure.

It's pretty obvious, but I left out "NO". She had no radioactive
exposure because it was before ring use. Hey, mild dyslexia waves at
times and gives me the finger other times, and knowing what I wanted to
say causes it to fill in the gaps I leave too often. That's just life.
Everyone has something, and as the years go on we all get more, both
good and bad. (For example, who ever thought I'd find the perfect man
for me as early as age 28 and that he'd still adore me after more than
a quarter century? That just gets better and better.)

Sukie (not a vet)
Reminder:  THE FERRET HEALTH LIST IS MOVING.
To join, click on the joining link at

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth and then follow the
directions.

OR just send a blank mail to the automated joining address:

[log in to unmask] and then follow the directions.

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/

[Posted in FML 5432]