In regards to Fulvio and his question about his ferret Igor:
It was mentioned that the ferrets were placed back in the cage after
cleaning.  Depending on what you clean your cage with, that may be a cause
for distress.  Most cleaners have a fragrance associated with them.  Ferrets
have very sharp senses of smell, something that smells nice and light to
you could be overpowering to a ferret.
 
This is just one of the many possibilities on the subject that I haven't
seen mentioned yet.  I would need more detail to be able to answer that one.
 
For Sue and tail acne:
If you are at all worried about Nicki licking the stridex residue off of
her tail, rinse her tail off with water after applying the pad.  This
should get most of the stridex stuff off.
 
For Jena and Angel:
I am not going to lecture you about considering declawing your ferret.  I'm
going to make some suggestions to help avert the digging behavior.  Putting
vinegar on the common digging locations is a good deterrent for a while.
Covering the area with a rug or a plastic carpet runner is also helpful.
Providing an area in the room where it is acceptable to dig is my favorite.
If a box of sand would be too much of a mess what about a box of shredded
paper?  Usually this "approved" digging area is much more fun for the
ferret to dig in and they forget all about the carpet.  And that's all they
are trying to do : have fun.
 
I would also think twice about your choice in a vet.  Any vet that
advocates declawing a ferret isn't very familiar with ferrets.  As I'm sure
you have gathered from the list, the majority of us feel that declawing a
ferret is not biologically correct.  I would worry about that vet when
other problems come up, worry that the vet wouldn't know as much as an
experienced ferret vet.
 
BTW - in case any one remembers, I had a bet going with one of the Info
Services guys here at work.  He ran out of theme pictures this morning -
SO I WON!!! : )  Thank you to all of the people that sent me pictures of
their beautiful fuzzies.
 
Beth, Minerva & Frumpstiggle the marsh wiggle
in Denver, Colorado
[Posted in FML issue 2463]