>Keeping a decent level of humidity in your home is always a good idea for
>you and your pets.  I have to warn you of the dangers of too much humidity,
>50% seems like a great deal of humidity to me.
 
I agree with the fact that you have to be careful for molds.  But humidity
alone isn't the culprit here.  As I said, that humidity level was
recommended by my allergist, in Houston.  I have severe asthma and scars on
my lungs.  My number one trigger is mold, it will send me to the emergency
room.  In Houston, my house had black mold growing on the sides of it.
 
Air stagnation is more a problem than just simple humidity.  When things
have moisture condensing on them, accumulating and never drying out, then
you get mold.  I keep the humidity in the house here in Missouri around
40-50%, I don't have a mold problem, even one I can't see.  How do I know?
I don't have to use my asthma meds on a regular basis.
 
So although I do agree you have to be careful about molds, I will stand by
what I said.
 
>Think about this; as far as I can reconstruct, ferrets in the USA had a low
>incidence of *reported* adrenal disease until the late 1970s.  <snip>
>A possible problems are are a shift from foods having lots of fiber (fur)
>and roughage to eating something that comes out like paste.
 
While I think there are some very good points in this post, I have to admit
there just isn't enough evidence to convince me that kibbled food is a
problem.  Again, I site cats.  I have owned and cared for cats for 30 years.
I have had several cats who lived to be 15-20 years old.  In fact, one cat I
have in Houston is currently 18 years and refuses to eat anything but
kibbled food.  I have *never* had any type of problems with bowels, outside
of lactose intolerance in any of my cats.  I have had cancers, leukemia, but
it is a well documented viral cancer.
 
Reading material that is a 100 years old is not enough for me.  Of course,
it isn't enough even for scientists to make assumptions about human health,
which has been by far more documented than animal health.  As for listing
symptoms, who says adrenal cases have to have readily observable symptoms?
I have seen cases that don't.  And frankly, unless something impacts the
breeding operation on a large level in animals, I think it was probably
overlooked.
 
Environmental it probably is, dietary I am not sure.  Kibble, in case no one
has read a label lately, actually contains fiber.  The stuff that cleans out
the intestinal tract.  One thing that I did learn in my human biology class,
as well as my other anthro classes, is that a general theory of disease
spreading or becoming more apparent is the simple fact that individuals are
living in much larger, more dense populations.  In other words, more folks
per square mile.  And that type of population density helps disease to
spread.
 
You cannot equate bowel disease to diet alone.  It does make a difference,
but as I recently stated, I suffer from diverticulitis.  I have always eaten
a diet high in fiber, almost vegetarian.  Yet, I now have to supplement my
diet with cellulose drinks to make sure my bowel works.  There is no known
cause for diverticulitis.  There is no cure for it either.  Who knows why I
got it 25 years before average onset.
 
>On ferret shows and sales
 
I have something for everyone to think about.  Although I can understand the
concern about selling ferrets at shows, I think there are some things we
haven't yet considered.
 
Attending cat shows is the experience I am relating to, since I have only
been to one really great show.  At cat shows, a very small percentage of
breeders will sell animals at the show.  Most of them just hand out cards.
You are not allowed, for the most part, to handle the animals.  Feline
Leukemia and Feline Infectious Peritonitis is a problem, and most breeders
do not vaccinate.  So you go and look for healthy cats, find a breeder you
like and communicate with them after the show.
 
I think this is a fine system.  But there is one small caveat to ferret
shows.  I would not think you would get the casual attendee at a ferret show
that you get at a cat or dog show.  In other words, I would have to think
that most of the attendees are already more educated or interested in
ferrets to start with and are probably more ready to buy.
 
Ferret shows are hard to come by and many might travel a long way to see
them, especially to get a ferret without going to a pet store.  With so many
on this list condemning sales in pet stores, I would think you would be
outraged that an alternative avenue is cut off from folks.
 
There are never any guarantees in life.  If we continue to act like ferret
owners are smarter and more educated than other pet owners, we are
alienating a lot of people and setting ourselves up.  By making it harder
and more mysterious to own a ferret, we help to propagate the myths already
in place.  We should not judge folks, we should HELP them.
 
One final thought, I learned from owning horses: Until you hear the same
thing from 3 different sources, take it with a grain of salt.
 
Mo' Maggie, who has the flame proof suit out and ready to go
and the 23 Mo' Mustelids with tiny little fire extinguishers
[Posted in FML issue 2221]