My male ferret, Weezzer, has been acting in certain ways that make me
suspicious that something may be wrong.  He has always kinda hibernated
thru winter, by this I mean that thru most of the winter months he always
slept most of the day and nite.  He usually only gets up to eat and drink
and for a little play time.  Come every spring/summer tho it was always
reversed.... he'd stay up like 18 hours a day out of 24.
 
This time he doesn't seem to be coming out of his winter "mode" of
behavior.  His symptoms are sleeping the majority of the day.  When he does
get up and wants out, I'll let him out.  He goes straight to get water ( he
HATES drinking out of the water bottle in his cage, he will not drink from
it unless he's really thirsty, tho he has always been this way) he will
splash it and rollick in it with his hands, get his drink, look around the
house a little (maybe 5-10 minutes) then go curl up in a sleeping blanket
in a back room.  This is what he has typically done during the winter
cycle.
 
Sometimes tho he has over the years gotten his "winter mode" a little off,
in other words it can start at different times of the year.  I've seen him
be a couple of months off the normal "winter" times.
 
I'm beginning to worry about him, its like he's always so listless, and
I've not seen him do a war dance in so long.
 
He also has a recurring case of diarrhea I cant seem to rid him of.
 
I should mention that he is five years old as of this past Feb. and we
live in north Alabama.
 
If anyone has had any experience with this or recognizes anything please
email me at my home addy, as I don't always have the time to read every
letter in the FML.
 
Something I should add, tho I don't know if it has any bearing on this.
About six weeks ago we rescued two female (we were told they were three
and four years old) ferrets ( they are both fixed, he is not), it took him
about ten days to get used to them but we keep them in separate cages.  We
tried putting them in one cage but he seemed to be annoyed with them ....
sorta..... he just seems to like sleeping alone in his old cage ( they came
with a super large modified cat cage).
 
Also he has several toys stashed around the house.  I guess he thinks they
are hidden.  If one of those ferrets gets near one of his toys he will
attack them and make em scream till they scurry away from there.  Otherwise
now he pretty much just ignores them.
 
That pretty much covers it, thanks everyone for your time.....
[Posted in FML issue 3031]