At last I found the time to read the ferret FAQ from end to end. It was encouraging to see that many of the same ethics are applied by our Ferret Society here in Western Australia; with only a few real differences. Longevity...10 to 14 years is more the norm here. Breeding... When ferrets as companion pets became popular again, there was only a small gene pool in our comparitively isolated state to meet the upsurge in demand, so breeding had to be done very carefully! A jill is never bred until she is at least 3 years old. This helps lessen the number of possibly inherited faults, such as cancers or cataracts, as she is not used for breeding at all if anything like that is apparent. It also appears that later-bred jills have less birth-related illnesses and mortality of mother and kits is decreased. Speying...Our jills are not routinely speyed, as we like to avoid unneccesary surgery wherever possible, but depend on vasectomised males to bring them out of season. The jill is taken to the hobble 2 weeks after the vulva shows signs of swelling and has a "sleepover" with him. I've observed them often and, provided the jill is not taken to him too early, and is therefore promptly receptive to his advances, the mating procedure is quite gentle. (Actually, last breeding season, none of my four jills needed to visit Spook or Sebastian because the rough play of my four castrated males was enough to do the job.) Diet...Because ferrets are carnivores, the diets here are generally based on raw meat. Mine, for instance have a mixture of kangaroo meat, beef and mutton(for the high fat content) mixed with a "total ferret food". The raw meat is given in relatively large chunks (NOT minced) to encourage chewing which massages the gums (dry food cannot do this) and exercises the jaws. Teeth problems are rare on this diet. Once a month they have a whole day-old-chick which come ready frozen from a hatchery. I must admit to being hesitant about trying this at first because it seemed too macabre, but gritted my teeth, defrosted the chicks to room temperature, and didn't look too close. My sweet little angels stashed them all over the place to begin with until the penny seemed to drop and they demolished the lot. When you think of it, what a fine little food package it is, protein, fibre, calcium et al. They also have access to dried food, such as Iams etc, lo-lactose milk with egg yoke and other treats. Descenting...Absolutely frowned on here as being totally unneccesary surgery which may cause anal prolapse. In fact you'd be battling to find a vet here who would perform the op. This posting is not meant to say that my way is right and you're wrong. There are no scientific records to back up these theories because they are general observations noted over the years by our Ferret Society. Instead consider it food for thought. Love to you all from Shirley, Flavia, Cru, Samantha, Jack, Cherry-pie, Rogue, Lucas, Bobby and, temporarilly, Morley. [Posted in FML issue 1587]