Our's eat rose petals, too, each chance they get so we have to remove them to a safe place. Worst thing we have seen is runs from too much vegetable matter. (Now, if only THOSE smelled like roses...) Anyone know anything more? Make sure that they are clean, as I expect that you have. As you pointed out: Rose petals are actually used in cooking and make a great jam -- kind of like Beach Plum jam, but better. When getting past hand feeding we have crunchies handy at all times for the ferret, and we often sneak up and stand still to watch because it is NOT unusual for a recovering ferret to be sneaking hard crunchies and not letting us know it -- very common to take them under something and try to crunch softly. Cute as that is, we find that typically the best way to get less dependent eating going is to discover them at at and then praise them to the skies without moving them; after a while they decide that eating crunchies is a sure fire way to get attention! Sherman is a slow introduction; with him connecting his tail stub to pain it's hard to get him to not panic when others try to say hello in their most polite ferret form. It will work but will take longer. We find it interesting to see how he moves differently not having a tail - more like a bear at times and like a deer at others than like a ferret. [Posted in FML issue 3274]