On Mon, 2 Mar 1998, Corey wrote to the FML:
>conflicting tidbits.  In this case, as to what fabrics are okay to give to
>our kids.  Some people say towels are good for bedding, while others have
>said it can too easily cause intestinal blockages when chewed up.  [SNIP:
>listing of of various textiles]  Or is anything okay as long as your fert
>doesn't treat it like food?
 
The stories probably conflict because they are based on individual
observation of individual ferrets.  Some ferrets eat cotton, some like
wool knits, some like polyester, some like a smorgasbord of textiles.
Some don't like cloth at all, but will eat paper.  We really can't
generalize about different fabrics and ferrets.
 
I'm not sure it's as much a taste for cloth as it is either a nursing
reflex/endorphin fix, crashing blood sugar, or both.  Errata was a terrible
cloth-chewer (I nicknamed her "Mothra").  When she did it, she had this
dreamy look, like a cat when it kneads and sucks on blankets.  She's pretty
much stopped now.  Hard to say whether she just grew out of it, or whether
she became conditioned to eating before naps from my plunking her in front
of the food bowl each time I caught her chewing or from the Bitter Apple
remedy (see below).
 
So what to do?  Be observant.  Examine the ferret's bedding daily.  If the
ferret chews the bedding, switch to another type of cloth and see if the
behavior stops.  If you hear the ferret chewing, try to bribe her off of
the cloth with a treat, then set her in front of the food bowl.
 
For a while, I did spray the ferrets' cage bedding with Bitter Apple,
letting it dry for an hour before letting them sleep on it.  The taste
remaining did deter Errata from chewing her blankets during the night.  It
would prompt her to get up to drink water and eat to get the taste out of
her mouth (well, at least I think that's why she did it), and once she ate,
she was disinclined to chew.
 
Any cloth can cause blockages.  Keep that hairball remedy handy to prevent
them.
 
By the way, Errata was eating solid food at 9 weeks, and was separated from
her mother at 12 weeks--not an early weaning.
 
-- Lee, one of the Massachusetts Ferret Friends
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[Posted in FML issue 2235]