>Maybe if he sheds less, he won't be ingesting so much hair and get >hairballs... If he is shedding a lot then consider adrenal disease as a possible component and read up on that. Shedding is a normal aspect the cycles that follicles follow. That isn't going to be changed. If the product makes the fur more gummy so that it is less likely to fall I'd worry even more about them chewing it. If it makes it more slick so the fur falls more easily when shed then you can do the same thing with an assortment of after bath conditioners. The single best thing we've ever found to reduce the fur shed in bad ways (as in ingested) is just to comb them with a flea comb. --- Okay, PAX on list, please! None of us can actually walk a mile in anyone else's shoes to truly know what their lives are like, but most of us can just go walk a mile a to calm down then re-write things to be less contentious, then take another mile walk if need be for a further re-write or trashing of the message if its still needlessly hurtful. Meanwhile, when you've read something that seems hurtful a miles walk will give time to think of other ways that the person may have meant it, then to come back and re-read it to see if perhaps the first reading accidently inserted a tone or intent that really wasn't there. I understand that shelter folks get terribly frustrated because day after day they hear excuses when often enough the real situation is the person should never have had an animal in the first place, but i also know that life turns out to have some very painful and limiting surprises at times which can change what someone can cope -- even sometimes despite precautions. I also know that some individual critters require a level of care, or space, or special situations, that not all all can fulfill. Personally, I don't get as upset at some of the "giving them up" posts as I do at the less common ones where someone has given up critters and then gotten others even though the problems that led to the first (or second, or third) surrender still exist. It' is more scary each time, and we actually have had folks do this -- rarely, but it happens. Those ones do worry me. I also am more worried by posts from folks who keep adding loads of ferrets without learning about the medical problems that can arise and saving to treat them. Not providing medical care is a form of abuse because it leads to needless deaths and suffering; if a person has to not have animals for a while to avoid accidently abusing them then I think it's best that they are given up, and that the person regularly donate to shelters as often as possible, and if possible also volunteer labor for some shelters rather than having ones personal animal companions until the problem stops -- and no sooner. Animal hoarders freak me, too. Do some people need to better learn their own personal limitations? Sure. Every one of us has been in that spot for something. Maybe for some of them, though, the pain of giving up an animal and realizing that there will be a years ahead when animal contact will only come from volunteer work are statements in themselves of a new level of responsibility and maturity achieved, so chiding may only backfire. [Posted in FML issue 3867]