I am now a new ferret owner. I adopted a silver female earlier today and spent most of the time since getting her cage put together and playing with her. She came with the name Sweety which I may change or not since she is one. The best guess was that she's 1-2 years old since she was brought in as a stray. Her favorite toy so far is a dowel rod with a string attached to a squeek toy. I guess you'd call it fishing for ferrets. She ran after the thing and pounced on it for a good hour today and then promptly ran out of steam and fell asleep on my lap. A close second is the ever popular plastic grocery bag. So far, I know she likes raisins and Ferretone as treats although she's so hesitant to even open her mouth when my hand is near it that it takes a little coaxing to get her to lick it off. I figure this will pass since she likes the stuff. She doesn't seem real wild about being held but I get the feeling it's more that there are so many new places for her to explore in the area I have set up for her when she's out (20X15 living room + 10X10 dining area) than that she doesn't like being held. She is pretty good about using the litter pan(s) so far and since the area is so big I have 3 outside the cage and may have to add another. So far my job of ferret-proofing is holding up well although she knows what doors are and seems a bit frustrated that there are areas that she's not allowed in (my bedroom, the kitchen, and the bathroom.) I block the kitchen entrances off with a couple of clear pannels designed for dropped ceiling lighting fixtures and held to the wall with velcro tape. It works and is about a tenth the price of plexiglass. I saw another ferret that had been brought in today that I may adopt as a playmate for this one. The only snag is that the other one was an only ferret and the two didn't exactly hit it off when introduced to each other although it wasn't an all out war (a little snarling and a few nips at each other followed by both heading towards opposite sides of the room.) They were both trembling and it took a few minutes of being held for them to calm down again. What's the likelyhood of these to being compatable. I don't plan on adding a second cage so if they couldn't work out their differences in a fairly short time I'll have to wait. [Posted in FML issue 0493]