As we all know, exercise is incredibly important for health, but Telemna
has been something of a couch potato and has been beginning to get
overweight.  Her behavior struck Steve and me that she may have worse
sight than most, so I tried a bunch of scents on her until I found one
she loved (roses) and put that on a toy mousie hung on cord from a stick.
TOTAL CHANGE IN BEHAVIOR!  She worked her heart rate up to a total buzz
and would have kept going chasing the mousie and me through the house
(up, down, all over) for longer but i had to stop due to an asthma
attack, so next time I will use my inhaler beforehand and we'll work
some more on making her happier, more active and more muscular.
 
I figured that I would mention this trick for others whose ferrets have
poor vision.  As I recall there were additional scent tricks in a past
"Ferrets" column by Bob Church, so I will have to dig that out to see
which may be most useful for a little girl with poor vision who needs
more exercise.
 
BTW, Scent mapping info to make a home safer for such ferrets can be
found in both the FML and FHL archives to help ferrets whose vision is
very low or who are blind.  I think I'll today be doing that to things
she might clunk against so that she feels safer running again.
 
-- Sukie (not a vet)
Ferret Health List
http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth
FHL Archives
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org
International Ferret Congress
http://www.ferretcongress.org
[Posted in FML issue 4969]