While reading the posting about the sexes of ferrets, and how they get along, avoiding mating, etc., I couldn't help reminising about my last trip to the vet for shots. A woman came in with a ferret for the vet to look at. "He" had lost some weight, and she was concerned. I will give her credit for checking this out, but I had to cringe at the misinformation that she had been given. 1. She fed the ferret twice a day. I told her that they really should be free fed all day long. 2. She let me hold and look at her ferret. She said that she was thinking about getting a female and maybe letting them have babies. I told her that there were two problems with that. a. She had a female, not a male. (I showed her one of my males, and let her see the "outie bellybutton" that male ferrets have.) b. It was a Marshall farms ferret (bought from a pet store, with tattoos and paperwork), and therefore had already been neutered. 3. She complained about its smell. She bathed "him" once a week. I explained that the frequent bathing made things worse, and let her sniff one of my seven there for her shots, and after she exclaimed over the mild smell, I told her that Angel's last bath had been over three months ago. As far as getting along is concerned, boys and girls usually get along with each other, and with the opposite sex. I've found it more a matter of individual personality than of sex. Towards humans, I've found that the boys usually enjoy being cuddled more, although I've had cuddly females too, and also some not so cuddly males. The girls usually give me the message, "OK, I've had enough cuddles now, Mom, and I'm REALLY busy. Put me down now." Females always strike me as having "far too much to do" to be very cuddly. Melodyt and the nifty nine (missing Frisky and Ginger) [Posted in FML issue 3158]