With respect to Ferrial's behavior toward Fidget and the reluctance of these
other ferrets to share bedding, nesting material with Fidget, may I suggest
that you consider the suggestions I made to Cindy Smith towards enhancing
ferret compatibility.  I also would be inclined to remove all the bedding
and leave nothing in the cage except the carpeting for at least 2 weeks.
This will mean that material possessing individual scent will be absent.
Possibly then any "territoriality" senses that the dominant ferrets would
normally maintain would be removed.  The ferrets would be forced to sleep
on the cage carpeting in a random fashion, possibly changing locations
throughout the night.  Since the apparent security of their ancient tunnel
den feeling would be gone (the feeling of the cloth over their bodies which
I like to equate to the feel of the tunnel, den walls) they will be inclined
to make up the void, this absence of a tactile sense, by more freely
associating with each other and sleeping intertwined.  After 2 weeks and all
the removed nest/sleeping cloth is thoroughly washed and dried, then bit by
bit restore the cloth to the cage.  Hopefully in this manner, maybe some or
all of the ferrets will be a bit more tolerant.
 
For Damon Hudoc and his instinctive tendency, his innate sense of animalism,
I say kudos.  Please do feed to your ferret(s) live feeder mice (the kind
reptile breeders prefer that are mice bred just for this purpose) and if
affordable, three times a week.  I would suggest that any partially eaten
mouse or other feeder animal be immediately removed from the ferret and
placed in a freezer for presentation to the ferret to consume later.  Baby
chicks and baby rabbits also are very good.  As far as fish are concerned I
feed salmon as a sometimes additive ingredient to our LUMPS to our ferrets.
The salmon is free from the local supermarket and consists of the fish
left-overs after fillets are cut away leaving the meat encrusted spine,
head, tail and fins.  After cooking the fish left-overs in a pressure cooker
(bones are soft and can be cut easily with scissors) I grind them with skim
milk in a blender, pour off into individual containers, seal and then freeze
for later individual addition to my LUMPS.
 
I think that once you start making home cooked additions of people food to
your ferret's diet, and specifically LUMPS, you will find that your ferrets
are quite healthy, they never develop ECE nor coccidiosis, are flea free and
push out poop like four inch long cigars.  So easy to pick up and of very
low odor.  Use of LUMPS at the earliest stage of kit development postpartum
is quite remarkable in that you can bypass the biting stage by transitioning
the kit from its sucking reflex to its licking reflex.  Of course, by making
your own home-made daily ferret soup (LUMPS) - it takes me about 2 and 1/2
hours every day to make 3 gallons of LUMPS and feed it to our 40 to 50
ferrets at a rate of 6 oz per ferret per day-you know exactly what your
ferrets are eating.
 
There are some other advantages to making ferret soup and these positive
elements are described in my pamphlet that I've posted on Ferret Advertising
List No. 11.  Since our shelter houses such a large population of ferrets,
the cost savings we realize by making our own home-made ferret food LUMPS
is vital to our success, eventhough we supplement LUMPS with kibble dried
ferret/cat, puppy chow and cooked chicken and turkey.We know that what ever
may be lacking in the dried food we more than make up for it with LUMPS.
 
End of 2nd part  (See 3rd part following)
[Posted in FML issue 2387]