Hi there!  It's me again - well, sorta.  The other day, I had my friend,
Judith, send in a e-mail for me to the FML about my ferret, Gushi.  Right
now I only have access to my e-mail account at work so she offered to post
for me in hopes to get some answers before I came into work next.
 
Unfortunately, I've received no comments.  So, I'll start from the
beginning and add in the new bits and hope for some advice.  Thanks in
advance!
 
Okay, so Wednesday - actually Thursday since it was 3:30am - I wake up to
this odd sound.  I know where it's coming from - the old folks' cage - but
I lay there for about abit trying to figure out what the heck the noise
is.  I finally get up to check.  It's then when I notice my oldest ferret,
Gushi, who is six and a half is chewing on the wire shelf that runs along
the back of the cage.  I spoke to him, asking him what the heck he was
doing and he turned around and looked at me for a couple of seconds and
then turned around and resumed chewing.  He's never done this sort of thing
before (or not at least when I've been around) and I am a light sleeper who
wakes to any strange/annoying sound.
 
On a whim, I pick up a small handful of food from the bowl on the bottom
level, underneath the hammock where he and Geisha are and offer it to him.
The bowl has always been there and we've had this cage for almost 4 years.
Gushi starts eating the food with relish and when he's finished, I offer
him some more and he continues to eat.  As I'm standing there having Gushi
scarf down food out of my hand, my brain can't help but think "Oh geez, the
old fert starting to go senile!!" I had fed him his duck soup with his meds
in it at about midnight, so I wouldn't think he would be **that** hungry!
Soon, I realize I was getting cold and at 3:45am, as much as I love my
little furball, I'm not going to continue like this much longer.  I grabbed
another bunch and put it on the hammock in front of him and crawled back
into bed.  Thursday night it happened again.
 
On suggestion from a friend, I did thoroughly clean the food bowl and
refilled it with new food just in case it was smelly and/or the food was
getting stale.  I also took a small plastic container and attached it to
the side of the cage at hammock level - he has been eating out of it and we
have only noticed one other evening, Sunday, that I woke to find him doing
this again.
 
Sunday, around 3am he woke me again.  He showed no initial interest in
the food when I pointed it out to him, so I pulled him from the cage and
brought him to bed and had a talk with him.  He wandered around then down
under the sheets and onto the floor.  He had some water and abit of food
from the bowls that were out then went to sleep after sniffing around for
abit.
 
So, is he possibly getting senile and forgetting where the food bowl is??
He is hypoglycemic and I have been feeding him portions of duck soup with
his herbal meds in it in the morning, so perhaps he's getting spoiled with
the attention involved with hand feedings.  The other thing I thought of is
that he's bored.  He never did this when he was younger (when I would think
he'd be more subject to getting bored more easily) so I don't really think
that that is the problem.  When I mentioned senility to my one friend who
also has ferrets, she asked about his litterbox habits.  Gushi's been right
on the money with that which conflicted with alot of what she and I have
heard about this sort of thing in pets.  Usually, litter training habits
are one of the first things to go out the door when a pet starts to get
senile.  Are we correct on this??
 
It's all very baffling, but if anyone has any ideas or advice please let me
know!  Otherwise, he's great shape, usually quite perky when awake and I
even got a wardance out of him yesterday!  (hasn't been gracing me with
these too often as he's gotten older so it's always a treat!) Thanks and
hugs to all!
 
George, Jasper and the Crew
 
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Georgette Peters                          Nothing is ferret-proof to a
Steacie Science Library                   sufficiently talented ferret.
York University
4700 Keele Street                                     *****
North York, Ontario                                 *********
M3J 1P3                                               *****
(416)736-5084
                                             Dook, dook, bjork, bjork!
e-mail - [log in to unmask]                        - Swedish Ferret
 
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[Posted in FML issue 2568]