I know there will probably be a bunch of other responses to Jules' ear cleaning question, but since I just went on fuzzy ear patrol the other day, here's another one! Really dirty itchy ears could very possibly be mites-- the way to tell for sure is to take your boy to the vet and have him do a mite slide. If it's positive you'll get some ear drops for him and the vet will tell you how often to give them. As for routine ear cleaning, every couple of weeks is usually good--pretty much if ears look yucky, clean them (a little bit of reddish-brown wax is ok, a ton of it is not). The method I use is to scruff the ferret with their hind feet resting on my lap, and I use the swabs with the ear cleaner already in them that you just snap. They might fight you-- when I adopted my Pukka, she had such bad mites that she had scratched her ear to the point of bleeding, so now she is permanently traumatized when it comes to ears, swatting and kicking at me. But it needs to be done-- just be gentle, go slow, and be sure to tell your ferrets how good they're being! A treat afterwards doesn't hurt, either. Obviously, if the ferret is *really* freaking out, stop and try again later. Good luck! Rachel and the monsters [Posted in FML issue 4609]