Hi all!! This is in response to Debbie Riccio's questions about outdoor Aussie and UK ferrets - as usual, I can't find the issue it was in, but recent... As an Aussie, I can say that most ferrets (certainly the ones I'm aware of around my area) are kept outside. I'm not a veteran ferret owner, mind you, only about 8 months now - our girls have a cage in the garage so they do generally have natural lighting - BUT - we bring them inside as soon as we get home from work, and they stay inside until we go to bed. This exposes them to unnatural lighting so their health could not be linked to natural 'circadian' cycles. I admit that this switching from dark (when we get home) to light (when they come inside) to dark (when they go to bed) to light (in the morning) four times a day had me concerned that it would stuff up their sleeping cycles, or their winter coats coming in - but Sinbad's coat has come through beautifully, and to tell you the truth, I've never noticed that either of them have a definite sleeping pattern to stuff up! Neither of our girls have yet suffered a full Canberra winter yet, as they were both born last Spring/Summer - but their parents lived outside all year round, and it doesn't seem to have done them any harm...I'll see how they go as it starts to get colder. Perhaps the feeding of whole carcasses has more to do with it? Thanks to modern medicine, we know that all the highly processed, yummy foods humans eat are slowly killing us, and that a fresh, unprocessed diet is far better for human health - perhaps the same counts for ferrets. Another possible difference I can think of is that, with less care being taken for their health here and in the UK (and please don't get me wrong, Aussies and Brits are NOT generally cruel or careless with their pets, it's just that working animals generally get treated differently), perhaps evolution is being left a bit more to follow it's course? I don't know whether the incidence of cancer and adrenal disease has been shown to have an hereditary factor in ferrets, but if it does, then it's possible that those ferrets with the diseases (in Australia & UK) have been allowed to die, thus eliminating to some extent the genetic factors causing the disease? Generally , I would imagine the 'rougher' lifestyle these ferrets have might lead to a 'winnowing out' of weaker strains, leaving those who are fittest for survival? I have noticed, through looking at pictures of ferrets on the internet, that most of them seem to be HEAPS bigger than Australian ferrets - in fact, a look at the "Zen & the Art of Ferrets" homepage left me convinced that either we had a different breed of ferrets entirely or that my poor little darlings were SERIOUSLY undernourished!! I would be very interested in anyone else's opinions on this subject, and in knowing whether (if any, and how much) any interbreeding between American, UK and Australian ferrets is going on. As I said, I am a rank beginner in ferretty matters, so these are just speculations... Cheers, Sophie. PS - HUGE Dooks and congratulations to Halo and her babies!!! PPS - BIG - sorry this is so big! [Posted in FML issue 1562]