Fleas on ferrets at Shelter FNW are vanquished in our two step program that
involves diet additives and the substance termed 1-Naphthyl-N-methyl
carbamate (Carbaryl) at 5% in a 95% inert ingredient mixture.  It works
quite well for us when we use it in this manner following:.
 
Since all ferrets at Shelter FNW are cage confined to maintain their
identity, date of birth, repro status, and to maintain purity of
breed-lines, they sleep in cardboard or plastic nest boxes equipped with a
nest cloth that is just large enough for them to lie on and to cover
themselves completely when sleeping.  No excess toweling or sweat suits
(jackets, pants) are used unless they are cut up to provide the ferret with
a double layering of material, one to lie on and the second to sleep under.
 
During flea season, or when an incomer is received and is a flea infested
critter, we spread out the nest cloth and sprinkle it with the substance
referred to above.  We fold the cloth several times and then slap it several
times against a solid object to distribute the substance throughout the
fibers of the cloth.  It is then placed in the sleep/nest box and this is
what the ferret sleeps on and under.  The ferret effectively dusts itself as
it arranges the sleep cloth to its liking.  Any fleas on the ferret that get
a dose of the carbamate and try to jump off the ferret do so, but are
trapped within the cloth and there they die, for the most part unable to
jump away and infest the neighboring ferrets.
 
Other than "dusting" the incomers, we dust the sleep cloths only when we see
evidence of fleas, which by the way, is not very frequent, because of our
other process of flea control.  Since we feed our ferrets a daily ration of
LUMPS* that contains the three, well known natural food ingredients, the
metabolic byproducts of these ingredients, in addition to being healthy
(they are not a poison as are the other substances such as Advantage and the
other flea toxins) are apparently unpalatable to the flea as it siphons up
the ferret's blood (similarly to the mosquito).  Hence the Siphonaptera
(entomological name for the flea) apparently spits out its first blood-sucks
and goes in search of another critter that is not on a diet of LUMPS*, nor
sleeping under/on a carbamate dusted sleep/nest cloth.  The one-two punch of
carbamate and LUMPS* seems to work quite well for us and, as it turns out,
is quite inexpensive.
 
The carbamate is relatively inexpensive and can be purchased in 4 lb bags at
K-Mart garden centers for about $2.50 when on sale.  It goes by the generic
name of SEVIN 5.  Be cautious: Do not use SEVIN 10.
 
*LUMPS = Lipinski's Ultimate Mustelid Porridge Soup (Note: is blended in
a high-speed blender until there ain't any.)
 
Edward Der FrettchenWahrheitskaempe von Frettchenvergnuegenland dabei
Lipinski.  [G.] The ferret champion from ferret joy land.  (Hope this
signoff signature causes no kineption-fits among my Austrian and
German readers.)
[Posted in FML issue 2375]