Just as a clarification: I think that it is possible that food and early neutering play into some of the health problems seen BUT... One "but" is that feeding kibble and having early neutering were done back before some health problems were common; in fact, they were done when some of the common U.S. ferret health problems were barely ever encountered and when encountered were not found in young or even middle ages ones but only in the old. Possibilities therefore include but are not limited to: that these are not the primary triggers, and/or that things like insulinoma and adrenal neoplasia just were not recognized then, and/or that the fancy markings genetics which has been far too much selected for in this country has introduced vulnerabilities which may interact with possible triggers, and/or such triggers are interacting with something else that is different from two decades ago (more lights at night in many households, a silent virus, a virus not yet connected to these woes, more concentrated nutrition, less exercise for too many people's ferrets, etc. -- though I know of those people in others households who are exceedingly careful about things whose ferrets never-the-less still have high rates of these problems or have them showing up earlier). Mary, you, your husband, and your family sure are going through a lot, but i am glad that his progress is in the right direction! Some picky eaters are funny and WILL eat a food if it is given slowly from a doll bottle with a non-chewable tip that has been cut to be wider, or will eat if sung to, or... Our guys prefer our bedroom to their room for exercise. If we can ever afford to be someplace where they have their own large room that is used for no other purpose they simply will HAVE to have a platform bed in it with climbable blankets and wedge pillows, and an open closet with clothing to climb and shred, and shelves into which to burrow, as well as a load of other fun things. They sleep a lot of their time out, of course, but i guess that they probably play very actively around 6 hours each day. The funny thing is that when they are done for the day it is not unusual for them to just climb back into their cage and wait to be shut in and covered for the night. [Posted in FML issue 4135]