Karen,
 
>        -There seems to be a lot of variation on how often people bathe
>        their ferrets, from once a week to once a year, how much is too much?
 
Bathing your ferret tends to dry out their skin if done too often.  I used
to bathe my fuzzies religiously once every two weeks.  No more!  They now
get bathed when their odor becomes intollerable.
 
>        -Is their any way I can get Sam to sleep through the night
 
This will come in time.  As they get older, their habits change.  My kit
(now about 5 months old) used to go nuts in the cage.  Every morning at 4AM
he'd start banging around in the cage (you could set your clock to this).
As he reached about 4 months of age this behavior started to decline.
 
>        He's convinced that if he keeps digging in the
>        rug, he'll be able to tunnel through.  I would like to let him keep
digging
>        until he realizes he's not getting anywhere but, again, it annoys my
>        roommate.  Any ingenious ways to prevent carpet digging?
 
Again, this is something that will stop over time.  I trained mine to stop
digging at the carpet by the bathroom door with a spray called BOUNDRY.  It
is sprayed in an area to keep pets away.  I still keep a can around the
house and I'll tell you from first hand experience that they HATE the smell
of this stuff. Check your local pet store for the product.
Regards... Russ Hazzon                [log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 1082]