Dear Ferret Folks- Went to a homeshow this weekend and ran into a fabulous collection of little toys made mainly for cats, although some of them are also things that ferrets would treasure, too. (Crocheted or knit mice, embroidered jingle balls and cubes, catnip filled goodies with and without feathers, crinckle toys, dragging wand toys for 'fishing', a whole range, beautifully made.Not cheap, but nice quality stuff. Click the thumbnails to see bigger pictures.) http://www.cattyshack.net/products.htm I bought a little sack tufted with pheasant feathers (apparently a pheasant had an infortuntate ending in her neighbour's yard!) that Sterling the Silver Cat *cannot* leave alone. I wish I could have brought Ping is He and Puma to select a few toys that specifically appealed to them. It's hard to pick out toys for your friends, if you are not certain precisely what kind of jingly, stuffed, or crinkly goody they might want. In any event, the lady and I got around to discussing ferrets, and her ferret toy sales. She does sell a certain number of her goodies to ferret owners. She was told (and tells her customers) not to buy any ferret toys containing catnip, as catnip is bad for ferrets. I must confess that I have never heard that. Catnip is a square-stemmed member of the mint family (mentha) and has the name "nepeta cataria." I cannot find any information that leads me to believe that it is bad for ferrets, fresh or dried. I do imagine, though, that a ferret could chew open a catnip toy and make a nasty mess, but then again so could a cat. It is harmless to poeple, you could eat great hands-full with no difficulty. My understanding is that it makes a smell that mimics a cat sexual pheremone, and cats just can't ignore it. It would surprise me to learn that ferrets would key into the same pheremonal cue that cats do. They are very different critters. The lady asked if I could please research the issue and get back to her. She'd love to sell more little toys, obviously, but she has been carefully warning self-stated ferret owners about the catnip when they tell her they are shopping for ferrets. (She warned me once I mentioned my ferrets, and I appreciated that.) I don't have a financial stake in this (darn!) but I would like to get her some good information if I can. Thanks, Alexandra in MA [Posted in FML 5900]