Yesterday Hilbert was out of their room for a full condo run and led me to the refrigerator, bumping me and it sequentially. When it was opened he pointed to the section of the door that has the fish oil and the Performance Foods/Totally Ferret emu oil compound, Vivify. The ferrets love both of those so I asked him. "Hilbert want fish oil?" He laid on the floor and gave a hang-dog expression and body attitude. Okay, not fish oil. "Hilbert want Emu?" Up came the ears, up came his head, and up he jumped, licking chops. Well, that was impossible to miss. He got Vivify. Today Hubble and engaged in our game of "telling secrets". First I make "Psst, psst psst" sounds into one of his ears and then he reaches over to one of my ears and does the same. (BTW, we can trade ears, too. If I switch to his other side he will switch to my other side.) Okay, so we went only one round of "secrets" before he pointed to where the Ferretone is kept. So I whispered in his ear, "More secrets". He took his mouth to my ear but instead of the "Pssst" noises he began making food and treat desire noises by actively licking his chops and smacking his lips near my ear. Hilbert and Morney asked for water the other day with thirsty noises after banging for our attention. The thirsty noise is pretty much the same as the lip smack. Telemna, of course, plays her 4 note piano to initiate communications, especially begging ones. The 10 note piano is used more by Pivot who does not have as good a musical sense but likes more variety. Neither just bangs like many animals do. We have only made one video, though, because they stop when we film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayJ-WvVaRnE Sukie (not a vet) Recommended ferret health links: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/ http://ferrethealth.org/archive/ http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html http://www.miamiferret.org/ http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/ http://www.ferretcongress.org/ http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html all ferret topics: http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html [Posted in FML 6374]