Re: Pretty bird food: our ferrets vary in acceptance. Ashling won't eat it; she eats around it. Sherman preferentially selects it and ignores other things in the mix; he thrives on it. Whizbang and Hilbert like it as well as any other foods in our mix. In the earlier version we have the food has sort of a fruit plus chicken plus a touch of yeast smell. Yeast is the typical source for nucleotides. We've got a batch of nucleotide powder here (Ashling is getting it as part of a soup during her recovery.) and it smells sort of like Brewers Yeast (but not as bad to me) and a touch smokey-ish. I suspect the fruit scent was added to over the yeast part of the smell, but I don't know. so that it just a wild guess. Almost all of the protein in the food comes from the chicken. Fiber levels can be kept low and carbohydrate levels can be kept low due to a combination of a new type of processing equipment and the selection of certain large-molecule sources of those. Finding vets who have been recommended by ferret people: http://www.ferretcongress.org (crit. refs.) http://www.smartgroups.com/vault/ferrethealth/ReferenceShelf/FerretVets.htm http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/vets/ Search by zip code, read FAQ first. http://www.quincyweb.net/quincy/vet.html http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/vets.htm http://www.ferretcentral.org/for-others/db-vets.html http://www.geocities.com/houseferrets13uk/Vets.html UK vets http://www.ferrets.org/Veterinarian_Listings.htm British Columbia vets http://supportourshelters.org and also sites and clubs which cover your local area, state, or region There are probably further resources of which I am unaware. Sleep: Gary, past studies have shown that ferrets not only sleep more than we do but spend more time in REM sleep, so they have both more time in REM sleep and in non-REM sleep (Non-REM time is when the body does a lot of its repair work.). This is not a surprise since the amount of total sleep is related to the metabolism (more sleep for higher metabolic rates) and the REM sleep time level relates to level of development at birth (lower level of development at birth for more REM time -- with the platypus having the most REM time so far known in mammals). I know of no reason to think that any dreams any other animals may have during REM sleep are any less elaborate than our's are. They could easily be every bit as elaborate but in ways that reflect a ferret's experience of the word such as more smell emphasis. Yes, we have seen some behaving as if they are having nightmares, and know of no reason to think that they don't have them now or then. The amount of good sleep with is NEEDED for good health varies among species. If humans were stuck trying to adjust to the 3 hours elephants need each night we'd be sick as can be. Ferrets on average NEED 14+ hours every day; it is what their bodies require for decent health. If you think other mammals are unusual then read up on single brain- hemisphere sleep work in birds. ENOUGH quality sleep without a lot of avoidable disturbances (loud music, etc.) and real darkness are parts of having a ferret-healthy-ferret-friendly household which may be forgotten too often. [Posted in FML issue 4304]