Brandy Jean asked the question, "I would like to know how you got this
information so I could read over it." This was concerning the question about
frequent bathing of ferrets, and how it might be best to only bathe ferrets
infrequently.
 
I suppose like most information that long time ferret owners have, you could
say "It comes from experience." With our first ferret, we were told to
"bathe it weekly." We did, but that musky odor continued.  Then some
long-time ferret owner told us, "Stop doing that!" We did.  The musk mounted
for a few weeks, then diminished and just about disappeared.  After about
two months, the odor was so faint that we had to stick our noses into the
fur to detect it.
 
We're now the proud owners of 16 ferrets of our own, and have well over 100
go through our shelter every year.  The "no bath" principle has worked well
over the years, and we find that frequent changing of the bedding, and
weekly disinfecting of the litter box combined with twice a day dipping of
the boxes, do much more to control odor.  In fact, if it weren't for our two
hobs, I don't think you'd even know we had ferrets in the house.  The hobs
are another story though.  <G>
 
Dick B.
[Posted in FML issue 2191]