I think many of us have dreamt at one time or another that we could
build an outdoor natural living area for our ferrets (or that we had
the money to). I have been intrigued ever since I met Chris from
England a dozen years ago who kept her little ones outdoors along with
many other Britts who at the very least offer their garden areas to
their ferrets for routine visits. Then Shirley of Australia shared
videos and photos of her indoor/outdoor natural living enclosure for
her ferrets at an International Symposium. We were all glued to the
screen. These ferrets acted unlike anything we expected. They chose
to do things we thought they'd dislike or that would be unhealthy to
them. Such as seeking naps in the sun right in the middle of a yard. Or
jumping into a small pond to swim. It was mind boggling. But I wondered
how much of these results was due to genetics, natural feeding, and
late altering?

Some people in the U.S. have been able to build indoor/outdoor set ups
and they all have claimed to have far less, health issues than normal.
They claim that there are far less, if any, adrenal issues, despite
the fact that their ferrets have no eurpean blood in them, no natural
feeding, and are early alters. I've always been fascinated by that.

Well, I discovered that Dianne Campell of Ferret Guardian Rescue Haven
in NC, did accomplish her dream. I knew it was being built a few years
back. She has been generous enough to share detailed photos of the
enclosure being built with the public on the web. But I never did see
the end results until today. Fortunately, she has also put up several
videos of her ferrets using the optional outdoor natural enclosure,
playing in the snow, rolling in the grass, climbing water fountains,
tunneling in the ground and more.

And something struck me, and struck me hard. Go watch these videos.
Does one single ferret look adrenal in these vids to you??

http://fgrh.org/construction.html

The ferrets are large, very large, athletic, have great muscle tone,
and have the thickest fur I've seen. These animals look like private
bred late alter ferrets from our best American breeders. But guess
what? The bulk of her crew is MF/PV/FFF ferrets. Its incredible what a
largely natural diet (she feeds special grain free kibble and whole pre
killed prey) and outdoors (the CHOICE of outdoor or indoor living given
to them) will do. This is what I've been told for many years by others.
But I've not seen such dramatic evidence inside America of this and
most impressively ... with our mass bred farm ferrets!

In any case, ponderings aside, go watch the videos for fun. It will
make your day.

Wolfy

[Posted in FML 7400]