Hi again! Someone asked for nicknames. Besides the usual ones such as sweetie, rascal, brat (or bratski), honey bun, stinker, etc., Nikki sometimes gets called Nik or Nickenbacher. Benji gets Benjamin most of the time but occasionally is called Benjers, Bend your manners or Benjammer. Bud the Stud gets called Buddy most of the time but sometimes he gets B's, or Beezer, Budzucky, or Budinsky. Sadie is sometimes called our Lady Sadie or the Shady Lady. Scooter gets called Scooty Boots (or Scooter Booter), or Scooby Doo. Jasper is sometimes called Jazz. Josie sometimes gets called Dozy Josie and Snoopy gets called something simple like Snoops. Our newest edition we call Mookie for short but he looks like one of the Ewoks on Star Wars and the name Mookie Dookie Ewok just stuck. When Huggy Bear was alive we used to called him Bear. I guess that's logical. When Dyna was alive we latched on the nickname Rambo. She loved to get into the kitchen drawers, especially where the elastic bands were. We would open the door and Dyna would peek out with an elastic around her head. When Willie was alive we would often say "Where there is a Willie there is a way" because he would never give up on anything. Does this sound familiar? Concerning diet, we have heard (and experienced) that cancer is a very common killer. Without going into details, we have had some heart wrenching experiences with this disease. Almost all of the ones that have died, died of cancer. We suspect diet has a lot to do with it and we feed the best quality kitten food possible (Iams, Performatrim, Max Cat for kittens). We have tried a few brans of food made especailly for ferrets but our fuzzies didn't particularly like it. After thinking about it, mink are in the ferret family and since we are fairly close to a number of mink farms, and mink are raised for their coats, we would try mink food. We havn't tried mink food long enough yet to know whether or not they like it or whether it will help combat against cancer. Mink food comes in small pellets and smells funny but most of them have at least tried it and are getting used to it. We probably will never go to mink food completely because it is quite soft in comparison to kibbled kitten food and we are afraid that it may affect the teeth. Our ferrets have good teeth and we believe the kibbles help keep them that way. We have 2 ferrets that are under a year old. They are in our opinion, overweight. One ferret shelter owner says that there is no such thing as an overweight ferret, but like people they have different body structures. We should therefore not alter their diet. Should we put them on a weight control diet? Because they are so young, should we not put them on a diet at all because they need their protein to develop properly? What is you opinion? The other day on the FML someone talked about blankets (or should I say blankies). We have cut up flannel sheets which make there bedding warm and cozy. Lately, I have been sewing borg sacks (with the borg sewn to the inside). They just love that. Speaking of warm and cozy. One last word. (I rarely get to say anthing so when I do, you get it all at once). I won't say a lot about this now and perhaps I will get criticized but I am not speaking as an authoritarian but from my experience. Over and over again, the discipline that works is not yelling and definately not spanking, especially not tapping them on the nose (I feel that I wouldn't appreciate getting hit in the nose when I was bad either. I would probably fight back too.). These make them even more hyper and doesn't seem to accomplish anything. Patience is the key word. Be gentle and firm, talk without a raised voice and move fairly slowly. I know this is not always possible. Even I am not all of these things all of the time but I know that when I follow this guideline, I get the best results. Cam and Tryntje Miller. Owned by Bud the Stud, Benji, Nikki, Sara, Sadie, BJ, Jasper, Josie, Snoopy, Scooter, and Mookie Dookie Ewok. Tryntje Miller Net:[log in to unmask] Conrad Grebel College Library Tel: (519) 885-0220 ext. 239 Waterloo, Ontario Fax: (519) 885-0014 N2L 3G6 [Posted in FML issue 1384]