While I would definately worry about the hot sand on tender ferret feet, and
sometime, even in New Hampshire, temperatures over 85 F, I've never run into
any problems with our crew playing in the sand.  Of course we're not near a
beach, but we do have a Mr. Turtle Sandbox set up on our screen porch for
the ferrets to play in during the warmer weather.  We use children's play
sand mostly.
 
When we first get the sand (in 50 lb plastic bags), it's usually very damp
and sticky.  The ferrets love to dig tunnels through it.  They always come
out with the sand sticking to them too, but a few minutes of running around
dries them off enough to let us just brush it off before they come in the
house.
 
After the sand in the box dries for a couple of days, tunneling doesn't work
anymore, but sand snorkling does.  They bury their heads in the sand up to
their shoulders and dig after pretend rabbits.  They also like to rearrange
the sand in patterns, a sprial being their favorite.  I do notice a sneeze
or two during the sand snorkling, but that's about all.  (I suspect that
this is the way nature intended burrowing animals to clear the dirt out of
their noses.) No long term effects, except that I'm constantly finding them
all lined up in front of the porch door in the morning waiting for me to get
up and let them out to play in their sand box.  When it gets too cold, they
let me know that they are not happy that I don't open the door, by leaving
"presents" all lined up in front of the closed door.
 
Others that have seen our crew play in the sandbox have gotten one for their
ferrets.  Never heard of any problems other than that the sand that gets
thrown out of the sandbox has to be cleaned up or it gets  tracked all over
the house.
 
Dick B.
[Posted in FML issue 1525]