I noticed that you said that you use distilled water as drinking water for
your ferrets.  I used to think that this was a good idea, too, until we had
a whole, long discussion about this on the rabbit list.
 
The list moderator there (Dana Krempels) is a biology professor at the
University of Miami.  She explained to us that the distillation process
removes the minerals from the water, and drinking the distilled water can in
turn give the person/bunny/other animal mineral deficiencies.  (She
explained it in great detail ..  but that's the "bottom line" part that I
remember).
 
Anyway, just thought I'd pass that on.  I use spring water or water from our
town well now instead.
 
- Ela
[Posted in FML issue 2308]