Rachel, I don't think there's anything wrong with your question. We see rough coats on a lot of ferrets, and itchy skin, and most of the time the reason is a diet too low in fatty acids and proteins. Itchy skin can also indicate allergies, skin conditions, or adrenal disease, but it's a rare vet who wants to cut open a ferret because it's itchy. Anyway, most of the time, the coat should improve dramatically within a month or two. At the very least, after the next coat change, although we often see improvement somewhat sooner than that. The first change we note is that the orange-yellow stripe down the spine of many ferrets fed cheap foods begins to fade. Then the coat softens. Ferretone helps, of course--and so would cod liver oil. :-) Good food is the most important thing, though. I'm sure whatever Illura's eating should do the trick. :-) Some ferrets have naturally coarser coats, as well. Our chocolate Tess is silky and soft, while silver mitt Figaro has a rougher, coarser coat. Jen and the Crazy Business http://home.maine.rr.com/tesseract [Posted in FML issue 3132]