Sorry if this post ends up a bit long.  I'll try to be brief.  (Hah)
 
Pippin came to me, at 6 months of age, from awful conditions.  She lived
in a 2ft x 2ft cage on a rural property and was due to be drowned because
of her biting.  When she arrived at my place she was, indeed, a biter,
but because of her tiny size, not very threatening really.  I have never
seen a ferret so terrified of humans.  To this day, about a year later,
she remains very wary of being picked up, but will dance & play.  She
is much improved physically but remains the tiniest adult female I have
ever had.  Her favourite passtime has always been to stash food.  This is
never a problem at my place because other ferrets will always find find
it and devour it in a timely manner.  Another ferret's stash of food
always tastes sweeter it seems.
 
Recently one morning, I noticed a very bad smell in the computer room, a
favourite haunt of many of my ferrets.  I checked all of the usual hiding
spots and removed the odd bit of stashed food, even though they seemed
quite fresh.  When I went in again in the afternoon, the smell was worse.
I moved all furniture, washed floors and cleaned everything in sight.  By
the following day, the smell was putrid and permeating through the rest
of the house.  In desperation I removed books from the bookshelves and
emptied all cupboards, thoroughly cleaning as I went.  No difference!
 
By that afternoon, I was at my wit's end and could hardly bear to walk
into the room.  Then I noticed a darkish smudge on the wall near the
bottom of a huge, heavy china cabinet, the only bit of furniture that
I'd been unable to move.  But no ferret could possibly get behind there,
right?  Nevertheless I prised the cupboard away from the wall with a
length of wood and was confronted with an enormous pile of meat, chicks,
mice etc in various stages of decay.  Whaw!  Did I have fun cleaning that
lot up.
 
Pippin, being so tiny, had found her perfect hiding place by squeezing
herself through the 1 inch space between wall and cupboard.  Because all
of my other ferrets are larger, they had no chance of being able to raid
her stash.
 
Today, that gap is no longer there.  Pipin no longer hoards her food as
much and is happier stealing it from other ferrets' hiding places.
 
So natural feeders beware.  If you have one ferret tinier than all the
rest, this could happen to you.
 
Shirley
[Posted in FML issue 5164]