Hello, first of all, I was a bit worried that one of the folks on the net is feeding his carpet sharks a lot of vitamins. The info on this is mixed and (as far as I know) not well researched but we have been warned that ferrets can be killed by vitamin A poisoning and that they get it easily. [Our vet, who specializes in exotics and has written some papers on some new techniques for working with ferrets, knows we give our ferrets linotone, which contains vitamin A amongst other things (we think it's mostly cod-liver oil). All he's said is don't give 'em very much. So do both of the ferret books we have. Our ferrets are limited to 2 or 3 fingers (finger dipped in the bottle and they lick it off) per day. Perhaps equivalent to 1-2 drops of the stuff. That's the maximum. Sometimes they go for a week or more without having any. Linotone is the only way we can get two of ours to stay still enough to have their nails clipped.] The warning about ferrets in heat is a good one. Hale's problem was a very different one. She started it by failing to produce any tears (at this point she was probably over seven years of age; we got her as a quite mature adult and had her for something shy of 5 years). Her standard vet could not find the answer so we traveled about 200 miles to an eye specialist. (an aside here: it turns out that a large number of ferrets bred in the Carolinas have a genetic predisposition to cataracts -- just a random thing we learned from him) Hale turned out to have a failure of the parasympathetic system, a condition which can also be seen in humans as either the localized eye problem or as a more generalized condition where other organs start to have difficulties. Hale's problem spread to her colon after close to a quarter of a year. It was easy to treat her eyes to prevent sores by using artificial tears, but there wasn't much anybody could do for her ravaged gut. She had antibiotics whenever an infection set in, then live culture yogurt to replace the needed bacteria killed by the antibiotics. Cortizone cream took away most of the anal pain.. She finally died in her sleep during one of the times when the secondary and tertiary problems were ebbing. She was in a comfy sleep posture which was a comfort to me; she was in very bad pain when ever her condition flared. Anyway, I hope that this helps someone. Has anyone else out there used tooth paste to discourage nipping? We have found that the smell is so repulsive to them that it's an excellent training aid. We've heard that bitter apple works. [Bitter apple works quite well. Unfortunately, it disappears too fast to be of any lasting deterrence] Our new baby (purchased 2 weeks ago and named Helix) is already litter trained and Hjalmer just plain hasn't had an accident in about one and a half years. Fritter purposely has them, though. We use confinement when young. lots of positive reinforcement when they use the pot helps a great deal. Our's will push like blue blazes to get the effusive praise we give for pot use. If you have your ferrets out at night watch out for owls!!!!! One dived us when we were carrying Hale on a night walk. The only thing that got rid of it was when I put her down the neck of my coat and made bird swallowing motions. What toys do your critters like? We have pvc pipe runs, hanging bells (ones they can't open and which are large),boxes, tubes, oatmeal containers, a mail box, a truck, a kitty toy on an enormous spring, a sealed can with a bell in it and covered with carpet, hard dog balls, plastic cap covers from non- alcohol wine bottles (really cherished), dishes of water to drag, etc. Some are in their romp rooms for when they are out and others are in their enormous cages. Steve notes here that Hjalmar likes to press keys on the Mac keyboard to change the resting display. [We go for heavy duty squeaky dog toys - ours have destroyed all of the cat toys - but we have to watch out for them pulling the squeaker out. Bald tennis balls. Practice golf balls. Muppet babies. Grocery bags (both paper and plastic). Balloons (not blown up very much so the inevitable explosion doesn't scare 'em). (Note: this is all done under supervision, so if they get into trouble we can rescue 'em. Have never had to though - except the occasional time somebody gets snagged in one of their towels - we've just started using old velvetine and this has eliminated the problem)] Has anyone gotten rug weasels to ENJOY bathes? How? [Enjoy no. Tolerate yes. And we reward them afterwards with treats and linotone (so's the experience ain't all bad)] Sukie Crandall ihnp4!mhuxt!evans [Posted in FML 0005]