My daughter has purchased a number of those small nylon collars available at
pet stores for her ferret Jezebel.  They are always way too long for her
smallish female, so she cuts them down so that the overlap isn't excessive.
But for some reason even though these cut-down collars start out loose
fitting, within a few days they tighten up almost to the point of choking.
She cut the last couple extra long but they do the same thing and eventually
become unusable.  Since her ferret finds a harness irritating, and because
of this shrinking collar problem, she has been letting Jezebel run around
her apartment without either, meaning no I.D. tag or bell.
 
About a week ago Jezebel somehow managed to slip outside.  Through blind
good fortune she wondered into the yard of one of the few people in the
neighborhood who knows my daughter owns a ferret.  Jezebel is safely home
again, but my daughter is now looking for collar alternatives.  She would
like to know if others have experienced this problem with nylon collars.
She has noticed that they tend to become mis-sharpened after they've been
worn for a while and wonders if that is what is causing the shrinkage.  What
type of collars have other ferret owners had good luck with?
 
In one of the back issues of the FML someone suggested using a piece of
leather boot lace, but that seems like it might be inconvenient since I
suspect removal would be difficult.  Even so, I did passed this suggestion
along.
 
As you can imagine my daughter is in a panic after having had her
unidentified ferret (UF) loosed in the CA FFZ.
 
Thanks,
 
cobra
[Posted in FML issue 1753]