well, that is what he looks like...
 
as near as I can tell, from reading teh Morton's book, he is a silver
mitt, complete with red eyeshine. Ive had him a little over a year.
 
he always was a roly-poly type, when he was younger (about 6months to a
year old) he greatly resembled an eggplant... grab his top half and hold
him up so his rear feet were just about on a surface, and there was
still this definite bulge around his abdomen. Vets said he was fine.
 
about january he slimmed out, showing what I consider to be the canonical
"gauntness" around the abdomen and back legs... i.e. you could see where
the ribcage ended and teh back legs began. about the beginning of march
he filled out a little, and now he seems to have just exploded. Like he lost
a game of Dig-dug. (ancient video game reference, you killed htings by
pumping htem full of air.)
 
aside from looking like a whole bologna, he seems fine and healthy. His
behavior hasnt changed, nor has his coloring, or the clarity of his eyes.
He *is* having a bit of trouble climbing the stairs, it takes him a bit
to get the momentum up and he cant take the whole flight at once. He also
run run). Now it is more like run rug run rug run rug rug rug.
 
My question is this: do I just have a large cylindrical ferret, or should
I try to put this guy on a diet? The problem wtih that is that I have a
hyperactive little female, and I dont want to end up starving her. nor do
I really want to separate them... tehy will probably think they are
being punished. I do have the facilities to separate them, I have a
small travel cage that she can live in. she did, until we got 'brindal.
(short for Celebrindal, other ferts name is Tumbleweed.)
 
[Ferret weight goes up and down seasonally.  Our vet doesn't use weight
to be a particular indication of illness unless it's extreme.  Nicia was
overweight and required some control, but she seems self-regulating now]
 
Another question: is peanut butter bad for ferrets? Tumbleweed is
uninterested in Linotone, but loves Nutrical (along with some fruits,
notably bananas and apple juice). 'brindal is completely uninterested in
most things that ferrets (in my experience of 6 ferrets) like. Not linotone,
not nutrical, not sweets, not milk, not fruit, not anything... except
peanut butter. He not quite viciously attacked a pb&j sandwich I had once.
(he doesnt do *anythign* viciously) since then I have occasionally used
pb to lure them out of places, and as a treat when they come to me when I
call them (well, maybe I can convince them to do so? :-). Since then
his undercoat and his "bib" have turned an orangey-golden color from the
cream and bright white they were. I just noticed this about a month ago.
 
are any of these things related? shoudl I be worried? if one isnt free-feeding
ferts, what kind of schedule should they be on? is there anyone near enough
to the morton's or wendy winstead that they can ask these questions (assuming
these peopel are willing to answer random questions in person or by phone).
 
in any case, thanks
/amq
                                                                          
[Posted in FML 0066]