With warmer weather approaching, the topic of doing darkness without
creating other health problems arises, basically, how much is too much
darkness, how much is too little, and how do you avoid things like lack
of ventilation and too much heat.

That is not always an easy problem.

Okay, we know that darkness should always be available and we know that
ferrets need loads of exercise (both physical and mental) -- which also
means enough room needs to be available. If a person can't provide
those then there is the chance that the person has more ferrets than
can be safely cared for, and none of us want to accidently slip over
from being careful ferret people to becoming animal hoarders. That is
a given.

Having darkness available for enough hours does not mean that the
ferrets have to be in covered cages with closed windows and no air
circulation. It is possible to work areas they can go to on their own
by placing black sheeting over furniture that has hideaways underneath,
or putting bedding into the far end of a closet in their ferret-proofed
play room, or providing nesting boxes with draped entries, or many more
options.

As to how much access for how many hours they need to darkness:
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/SG569

When warm weather (and worse is hot weather) is present it is much
harder to provide that darkness, so be careful to not trade one health
problem for another with too much caging and too little ventilation.
Everything in life has its nuances, its upsides and downsides, and
everything needs to be balanced.

Sukie (not a vet)

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/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html

[Posted in FML 6266]