The question of exposure to light was suggested to be added to the Big
Ferret Fact Finder (http://ferretfactfinder.blogspot.com) by one of the
early participants and the immediate results from later survey takers
were quite surprising. While we have particular ideas about lighting in
our own home, I didn't think that many gave much though to it for their
fuzzies. Of the 59 ferrets providing information so far 31 responded to
two questions, one on natural, and one on artificial light. Of these 31
ferrets 22 (71%) are kept in rooms that have plenty of natural light.
On the flip side 26 of the 31 ferrets are exposed to minimal artificial
light. Nobody reports keeping their ferrets where they receive no
exposure to natural light nor does anyone keep artificial lights on
24/7. Clearly lighting is something caregivers responding to the
survey are taking seriously.

In our ferret room we use low wattage lights so that even if we need
to turn on the lights after dark they are kept dim. While there are
dark places for our ferrets to retreat to, our ferret room is on the
southern side of the house, has a big sliding glass door plus a
standard size window. We also invested this year in new windows and
siding so our drafty old New England Cape has been comfortably sealed
up. Our fuzzies' winter coats seemed to be slow in coming this fall as
a result so we closed the drapes over the sliding glass door to filter
out more of the usual natural light about mid October and within a week
their winter coats were coming in.

Over the coming weekend, week 2 results will be posted to the Big
Ferret Fact Finder blog (http://ferretfactfinder.blogspot.com) and
will include more results on lighting for ferrets as well as other
Big Ferret Factoids.

Warm Fuzzies!
Kenny Mayne
Ipswich, MA
http://ferretfactfinder.blogspot.com

[Posted in FML 6147]