Hi,
 
Ferret Math struck hard this week end!  I took a day trip on Saturday to
find permanent homes for the 2 lab mix pups my husband found last month.
While they were with the dog/cat rescue group, I met up with a friend who
took me to the pet stores in the city that might have some fuzzies.  We
found 2 roughly 15 week old girls and I couldn't resist.  I'd been looking
for another youngster to help occupy my 14-week old (who is driving my
older ones crazy!).
 
My male doesn't like other males, so the fact that these were both girls
was wonderful!  I couldn't very well take one and leave the other along,
so I got them both.....
 
One is a beautiful Siamese.  We call her Myst or Mysti.  The other is a
black sable and is the darkest ferret I've ever seen.  Her name is, you
guessed it, Riven.
 
It only took about 2 hours of playing together for dominance to be
established to Dexter's satisfaction (Sultan of the harem) and for all 5
to be sharing a hammock.
 
Now I have some questions:
 
In ferret society, I know there is an alpha.  But is there a beta, etc?
 
Also in ferret society, is there a dominant male and a dominant female?  I
am talking about spayed/neutered pet domestic ferrets here.  Basically, are
there 2 hierarchies - male and female?  Or just 1 who is in charge overall?
 
Finally, lately in the newsgroup, alt.pets.ferrets, there has been a thread
about giving vegetable oil to ferrets.  The person who started the thread
give his ferrets a water bottle with vegetable oil of some kind in it.
They have free access all the time.  He says they will just take a few sips
and eat and drink as normal.  He says their coats are fantastic, etc.  No
one on the newsgroup could come up with any reasons not to do this as long
as the eating and drinking were normal and none got fat.  Can anyone here
come up with any reasons not to do this?  Any oils that should or should
not be used?  (Ferretone was not the oil used.  It was still a treat.)
 
Thanks for the info!!
 
Kim and the Terrific Trio plus 2
[Posted in FML issue 2517]