Hello everyone! I have to put in my two cents worth concerning those ferrets who are 'stone formers'... We lost our first ferret Weasel to a blockage of crystals like have been discussed here lately and I have done some reading since his death... We've made some changes in our ferrets diets and I feel compelled to share some interesting information about it with everyone. Firstly, a little information about water... the 2 Hydrogens and the 1 Oxygen molecules that make up water must 'cling' to something in order for water to form a 'drop'... normally it finds a microscopic particle of something (like calcium) or other solid particle to cling to, in the atmosphere, to form itsself into a droplet. There is a type of commercially available water out there (filtered thru a membrane process) that is called "Reverse Osmosis" water; (R/O, for short) and this water is SO PURE that it is actually 'wetter water'... it has had those microscopic particles filtered out till it is chemically, ONLY, the 2 H's and the 1 O... nothing else in it! It does not form a 'drop' as we know it... In fact: R/O water is so pure that it actually 'looks' for a particle to cling to and as a result those of us who run R/O water into our homes must have it running through plastic pipes because if it runs through metal pipes the energy of the R/O H20 will actually leach away microscopic particles of the metal pipes and you'll soon loose your plumbing system to this energy! R/O water is stored and sold in Plastic too; as its the only container that will hold it for any length of time. Why is this interesting? Well, its been documented as well, that this 'looking for something to cling to, to form a drop' kind of energy also helps those humans who drink R/O water clean out impurities in their bodily systems as they digest the water ! (it is still looking for something to cling to and as a result it grabs onto the deposits in our bodies)... those R/O water drinkers are systematically flushing out the calcium and problem deposits that form our kidney stones-- our gall stones-- and so forth... its even been shown to help clean arterial placque (Cholesterol) to a certain degree!! Amazing stuff!! So when I learned about this phenomenon, we started immediately using R/O water for all our ferrets drinking water.. in five years we've never had another problem with a bladder infection or crystals, or stones in any of them... and our ferrets range in age from 6 to 3. Now, of course I can't state for certain that its only the water, because we also feed strictly Zupreem and Mazzouri foods.. with one or two Pounce treats per day and NOTHING ELSE for the little ones... No matter how they give us the eye~!!~ (I'm sure that dietary intake has a huge affect on the ferrets health from this stone-forming standpoint too). I mean, it makes sense that if you don't put it in there in the first place it doesn't get stored in the body, doesn't it? As for myself, I'd passed a few 'stones' in my day... (and there's no mistaking one when it comes thru, as it hurts like unholy hell) but since switching to R/O water for my drinking needs I haven't had a single one! Coincidence? I don't think so...! Kimberly Latas [log in to unmask] [Posted in FML issue 4244]