I've been commenting on the FML about chocolate for years. That's not to imply that I know what I'm talking about, but rather to imply that I'm stubborn. Anyhow, here are a few of my thoughts about it. First off, I'm not advocating it for anything other than occasional treats. Ferrets are carnivores, not Hersheyvores and there is concern that too much sugar in the diet can contribute to insulinoma (per Dr. Brown). On the other hand, if you like to treat your fuzzbeans to raisins I think a chocolate chip is better: raisins have a lot of fiber, stick to teeth and are loaded with sugar too. Chocolate is high in fat and contains no fiber. As far as toxicity, the compound many people worry about is theobromine. This is a mild stimulant which isn't of much concern to most animals, but dogs have a particular problem with it: they metabolize it very slowly so toxic levels can build up and eventually interfere with heart rhythm. The fatal dose of milk chocolate in dogs is much higher than some people think, (the lethal dose is around 4oz/kg, so a 20 lb dog, for example, would have to eat over 2 lbs of chocolate to be in deep doo-doo) but it would certainly be foolish to give dogs chocolate, I agree. Chocolate toxicity may very well be a problem in other species as well, but as far as I could find, dogs seem to be considerably more sensitive than other species. The problem is, I can't find very much information about theobromine in ferrets. I've done some electronic searches and I'm pretty sure there isn't published research about this, but I'd love to hear from anyone who has more info. Lacking studies, it boils down to anecdotal evidence and then to a question of quantity. I've been told by many people that their own ferrets did stuff like get into a bag of chocolate chips and ate like there was no tomorrow with few, if any, side effects. A typical chocolate chip is 2 grams - one, or even a few, just isn't going to matter, in my opinion. But I also can't ignore Erika's experience with her poor Bobbin... there's much we don't know about these critters... sigh. One thing I do know - chocolate sure seems to be addicting. My furry little creeps will do almost anything for chocolate. I'll bet they have dreams of being let loose in a candy store and attacking all the chocolate mice. It will probably be heavily taxed by the ferret government when they take over the world. Bill [Posted in FML issue 1382]