Hello all-
 
I have a couple of questions to pose.  The first is more of a story with an
ending question.  My youngest ferret-girl, Jordan, is in love with egg
cartons.  We buy eggs in cardboard cartons and when we empty the carton, we
play egg-carton monster.  I grab her with the carton like a big mouth eating
her up.  When we are done with that game, I lay the carton down on the floor
and she immediately starts to rub herself on it.  She rubs and scratches all
over it.  She will then grab her head over her ears, open her mouth wide and
shake her head.  I thought at first that she was pawing at her mouth and
took the carton away and held her for a minute.  She wiggled, I put her down
and she never showed any signs of sickness.  I let her rub on the cartons
when I'm home (she also likes to eat and chew on the container).  Lately, I
have been cradling her head and grabbing her hind legs and rubbing her back
up and down the carton and she gives me kisses as I do this.  It's so funny
to watch, but why does she do this?  Do ferrets have a love for eggs and the
smell is good to her?  Is she insane?  Comments would be greatly appreciated.
 
Next, in forming the Springfield (MO) Ferret Association, a gentleman called
and wanted to know if I had any information about ferrets in medieval times.
He said that in those times, falcons and falconing was the sport of kings,
but ferrets were the pet of the commoners (he does the renaissance festivals
and uses his ferrets as part of his costume).  Does anyone know anything
about this?  I told him I would try to find something out for him.  Thanks
in advance.
 
Jeff Finazzo asked (a while ago) about ear-cleaning.  On the advice of a
friend, we wrap our ferrets in a towel with their heads sticking out.  We
wrap them tight enough to stop most of the wiggling but not too tight to
hurt them.  With their heads sticking out and the claws not in scratching
position, my SO and I put some ear-cleaning stuff our vet gave us on some
q-tips and clean fast and furious.  It works pretty good.
 
The last thing is about bedding.  In the local pet stores in town, they are
now using something that looks like cotton-seed bedding.  It seems to be
less dusty than the wood chips they were using (our club has been working on
them for a while now on that issue) but it also looks highly edible.  I
didn't see anyone eating it but it was on their little noses.  What is this
stuff and is it better than the wood chips?
 
Thanks so much,
Melissa Knapp
Jordan (a little to the left mom. Oh egg cartons are the best back
        scratchers!)
Pippen (what's the big deal, Jordan?)
[Posted in FML issue 1640]