After lurking for a few months, it's probably time to get my first posting in this list. After 14 years of ferrets underfoot, I think I've experienced at least one of most everything discussed on this list. A posting from Fred & Donna Howerton questioned whether or not raisins are a cause for most of the illnesses. I had the exact same thought some years ago, when our original gang of four each went through serious illnesses. Back then, I was on my own as far as ferret knowledge goes, and the four weasels got a huge number of raisins: each time they used the litterbox, each time they did a trick, each time they just stared up at me looking pathetic. Since each of them over time had become seriously ill, I tried to figure out if there was a common cause. The only thing that seemed to be common among them was that they each ate a lot of raisins. I cut back on the freewheeling raisin givaways, but the number of serious illnesses with subsequent ferrets remained pretty much the same. I guess I didn't realize that the real common link between them was that they were all ferrets. On declawing, my experience says it is a bad idea. We adopted Phoebe from our vet after her owners never bothered to pick her up after having her declawed. Even though she still had her back claws, she was at a severe disadvantage with our other ferrets. She couldn't follow them up onto the couch or much of anyplace else that required a bit of climbing. We put a small wicker stool next to the bed so that she could get on it when she wanted. She had a pretty difficult life, but we tried to make it the best for her as long as we could. One final thing. I never would have believed how close ferrets can become to one another until I saw it myself. We had always had several ferrets at a time, but due to illnesses, over time the number of ferrets dwindled down to two. Nolan and Louweasel were each other's companion for a number of years. Two years ago, Louweasel died very suddenly from a punctured bowel caused by cancer that showed absolutely no outward symptoms. Nolan went into a very severe depression (at least now I know that's what it was). He lost weight severely, and many trips to the vet with many, many tests from bloodwork to ultrasound failed to find anything. He just started to waste away. He wouldn't wake up to greet us as usual in the morning, and would just curl up under my chair most of the time and sleep. We decided he really needed a companion, but were worried that he was too ill to have a new "friend" thrown at him to upset his world even more. But, that was really the last thing possible to try, and since Maila became his new companion he has come back to 100% normal. I really feel that two is not enough, since a sudden loss can cause such severe loneliness. --- Randy A. Brown [log in to unmask] [Posted in FML issue 1439]