I too come from the "way back when" group who owned ferrets in the late 70''s early 80's, a time when there was little information available on how to care for ferrets. My first ferret, Hobbie, came from the local zoo where he was fed the same diet that the lion's and tiger's and bear's got (well not quite...but it was a raw meat type of food supplemented with kibble). When I brought him home he was unneutered, so he would have been between 2-3 years old when he got sniped. I fed him "grocery store" kibble and canned dog food and he lived to be 12 years old with no serious health issues until well after his 7th year when he developed an adrenal tumor. Over the last five years of working with the Alberta Ferret Society I've spoken with many people who also had ferrets "way back when" and who also fed what today we would consider totally "inappropriate" diets (cheap cat food/table scraps etc). The one thing I found in common with all of them was that they each claim that their ferrets lived to be between 9-12 years. I've never given a lot of thought to these statements but after seeing similar posts on the FML I'm starting to wonder. I wonder why, when we were doing everything wrong "according to today's beliefs", it seems that our ferrets lived longer and healthier lives than they seem to be doing today!! Is it just coincidence or is there something that we're missing or overlooking? Barb Gustafson Alberta Ferret Society [Posted in FML issue 3953]