I was really glad to read Bob C.'s last post about calorie restriction with all of the references. As a relatively new (1 1/2 yr.) ferret slave, I had read everywhere that ferrets had to have food available all the time and that they have to eat 6 times a day. Rocky ate like that when he was a little kit, but now he eats at most twice a day and not very much at that. I was very worried about his eating habits because of what I read. He is on the thin side but very strong. Rocky is free roam all the time now (I'm thinking of putting his cage away now that he's learned if he doesn't bite my feet in the middle of the night, he can be free). I wonder if some ferrets who spend a lot of time in their cages eat more out of boredom. At one of the shelters where I brought a rescue, I noticed that a lot of the ferrets were really plump and my rescue, who was always thin, was fat after just a month. (One reason is the food was better! His original humans gave him terrible food.) I realize that most people have to keep their ferrets in their cages most of the time, especially the shelters, but I wonder if this has something to do with all the disease via obesity, since ferrets are more like a cat or dog than a typical caged animal. One of the reasons I hesitated to get a ferret was that I didn't want to have a cage in my small apartment and now I feel very lucky to have a ferret who doesn't need one. I do close him up in the bathroom, with the cabinet duck-taped shut, when I leave the house. But he is much happier there in his camp site, which he selected as a kit, with his sack and makeshift tent and his stuffed animal friends. Just rambling--don't assume I have any evidence for what I'm postulating. Shron + Rocky P.S. Rocky's motto: "If it's in my food bowl, it can't possible taste good." [Posted in FML issue 3951]