Ok...I've been putting off posting this, because I hate to make people Cry. I do it often enough reading the FML... I rescued a boy about a month ago...because people suck. How I came about doing this, was (long story) I play trivia weekly at a local bar with my neighbor, the recently-retired animal control officer for our county (I live in a small mountain town with several other small towns around). My neighbor and his (now ex-) coworker know I have ferrets and asked if I wanted to adopt another. Here's the 'people suck' part...seems a ferret had been found in a dumpster at an apartment complex in a nearby town, stuffed in a dog-food bag; left to die. He was found by someone who lived at the complex when she went to take trash out...she heard a rustling, saw movement, called her boyfriend to come out...found a scrawny, matted, sad little ferret, starving and near death. They took him in, cleaned him up, started feeding him. She (fortunately) works at a dog groomers/pet supply/dog sitter in another nearby town, so took him there since she found she couldn't have pets at her place. They bathed him, trimmed his nails, cleaned him up and fed him lots and lots of good food, as they put it, 'the first 3 weeks we had him, all he did was eat, eat, eat.' it was at this point my neighbor asked me about taking him, since the groomers have 8 dogs of their own, and a constant flow of dogs coming thru their business. Not a practical situation to keep a ferret in. They loved him dearly; had spent a lot of money on food, toys, a nice cage for him, but knew they couldn't give him a good home. So I took this boy in, and he has assimilated fabulously with my gang of 3 boys, 2 girls. Everyone happy and getting along wonderfully. We named him 'Dorje'...a Buddhist term. Fits him nicely; I jokingly call him 'dorje porgy pudding pie' after the children's rhyme. Problem is, this boy, even though he's in a forever home and has access to unlimited food since he was saved from the dumpster then, and now, doesn't know he will never go hungry again, and so he eats constantly. He weighs well over 3 lbs and actually has fatty 'blobby' areas where the pink skin is visible thru the fur above his thighs, also on his belly, and is generally just plain huge. We have taken to calling him 'panzon' (any 'frida' fans?) since he is truly fat and pot-bellied. I have a couple 'big' ferrets, and have had several over the years i've had ferrets, but this is not just another 'big' ferret, this is just plain a "fat" ferret. I know this is not healthy. So, I need to ask...what can we do? He is so happy with everyone else I hate to stress him out again after all he's been through by isolating him in a separate cage and giving him a 'lighter' food, and since my other 5 are doing fine I don't want to have to switch everyone's food to keep him in with them. He's active, playful, very fast(!) and frisky, not acting indolent and lazy from his excess girth, but I worry about health problems from so much extra weight. So...help? Any ideas? Suggestions? There aren't ferret health clubs out there; no 'curves' for ferrets...how do I slim this boy down? Or will he possibly moderate his eating in time if i'm patient, and lose his excess weight and be fine? I'm no expert, but based on teeth and coat i put him still fairly youngish...around 3 years old. Hope to get him to the vet soon, but in the meantime... So, long story (that needed to be told)...and hope someone has some ideas. ~sherrie, aka daoine o' the ferret queen and the weezils: burleigh, pandora, ashby, emma-wheee, sebastien, and now dorje, the luckiest ferret in the world. Missing: pixie, felix, shay-shay mc-weasel, max, sascha, monty-boo, jezebel, razzle, loki, sylvie, natasha the stranger, and dweezil, my first...my one small star. [Posted in FML 7594]