Just a little banana as a treat now or then is not only *not* a bad thing, but it is a good taste for them to acquire. That is because heart problems are not particularly unusual in these guys, creating a need for diuretics, and some other problems can also cause that medication grouping to be required. Diuretics can dump potassium levels. Banana is a gentle and safe way to replenish potassium. Drooling always calls for checking the blood glucose among other things, even if checked recently. There is currently some new debate (and much disagreement) among vets about the use of melatonin when insulinoma may be present. This is because melatonin is involved in two conflicting actions in the pancreas, so some may be helped by it while other ferrets may have blood glucose reduced by it and thus falter. Nothing definite is known on that score yet so caution is appropriate, perhaps with oral tried if both diseases may be present to first see how an individual responds. Just know that for some ferrets melatonin MIGHT reduce blood glucose (and might have the opposite effect for others) so if there is insulinoma present it could be prudent to not use the implant until it is known how the individual reacts to adding outside sources of melatonin. One related possibility may be that providing enough complete darkness may have protective results for the pancreas just as it does for the adrenal glands -- about 14 hours of it for each 24 period which results in the ferrets' bodies producing what for most should be enough melatonin by the pineal gland though the amount the body produces reduces with age -- but like the starch/sugar reduction hypothesis for pancreatic health it is still hypothetical rather than proven. It is already known to have protective effects for the adrenal glands. There has been extensive work over the last decade or so on that in many studies and with each part of the adrenal connection having independent confirmation. Currently, there are further studies going on to see if some of the same meds used to treat adrenals may be used for temporary medicinal sterilization instead of operations (deslorelin/Suprelorin), and if the meds may work long term to prevent rather than just delay onset of adrenal disease (deslorelin/ Suprelorin, and I think that one or more Lupron Depot and melatonin studies might still be on-going) but one catch is that the category of med that Lupron Depot and deslorelin fall into can become less effective over time in humans so they need to find out if that also happens in ferrets, among other info sought. Anyway, there are people here who were first taught by old ferret keepers in Europe and were told to be sure to provide a lot of time with access to dark nesting boxes or the ferrets would get ill, and that might be true for more than one disease. That old wisdom is already known to be true for adrenal health and it *might* be true for pancreatic health in ferrets as well. Of course, melatonin is not at all as effective as Lupron Depot (but is better than nothing usually) when an adrenal growth is present, and the combo of those two is a good one usually. Surgery is typically best for an adrenal growth. There is a lot on these common medical problems in the Miamiferret site (with the best by vets like Dr. Kemmerer and Dr. Murray, or by Mike Janke), the AFIP site, and the FHL Archives, but the debate on melatonin when insulinoma is present (and a related one exists on when diabetes is present) is new so it is not there (or pretty much anywhere while it is still in such early stages of info on the ways in which the pancreas uses melatonin). Addies for all of those are in my signature. Melatonin is a very ancient natural hormone but was very understudied until this last decade, with most info on it being very, very new. No one knows how to weigh many of its functions, and it wasn't even known till recently that it is so very important for a wide range of functions, well beyond bodily clocks (BTW, the adrenals turn out to have a bodily clock in recent studies, but much more needs to known about that.), and well beyond its antioxidant properties. One surprise about melatonin -- I think last year -- turned out to be that it is important to marrow health. The old hormones play many functions. The estrogens, for instance, serve us all well over 100 ways that have been found so far including for some mental functions. Just in 2005 or 2004 one of the estrogens (estradiol) was found to play a function in pancreatic health. The more recent androgens (male hormones which are related to the estrogens and the body turns the two back and forth into each other depending on what is needed since both genders use both types (just in different proportions)) are already known to provide dozens of functions in the body. So, it is only logical that a hormone as ancient as melatonin will have a lot more to uncover about it. Although we all know that hormones like the estrogens and androgens are made by the reproductive system they are also made by other organ systems. The adrenals can produce both. Fat turns out to be a very active endocrine organ and is a producer of estrogens (which the body can use as estrogens or change to androgens to use that way) which may be one reason why those last pounds of fat are harder to pretty well impossible to lose for many of us as we age -- there may be a call for its products. It also may be one reason that it plays a bad role in some diseases. -- Sukie (not a vet, and not speaking for any of the below in my private posts) Recommended health resources to help ferrets and the people who love them: Ferret Health List http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth FHL Archives http://ferrethealth.org/archive/ AFIP Ferret Pathology http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html Miamiferrets http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/ International Ferret Congress Critical References http://www.ferretcongress.org [Posted in FML issue 5379]