Laura Young wrote: <[log in to unmask]> >First off I was wondering if the fuzzybutt that has been "Fear pooping" is >descented. I was told that a botched job or even a "good" job might end up >with the critter losing sphincter <sp?> control and thusly pooping whenever. Nope. He's descented all right. Thanks to everybody who replied on this topic... awfully nice to see some ideas about why the little monsters do this sometimes. For those of you who wrote with helpful suggestions about how to get the behaviour to stop - it's *already* stopped, as I mentioned in my post. I was just looking for an explanation for the behaviour so I would feel better about having to clean the carpet a thousand and one times. :-) I like Michaela's theory, which is that the ferret poops so that the blood flow used for digestive purposes can be re-directed in order to better mobilize the animal's resources, by sending more blood to the large muscles. I'm really sorry I posted about the fear-pooping in the first place, because it turns out that doing so was tempting fate. I posted after the problem was solved, just wanting an explanation for the behaviour. And what happened? Now I am looking after a darling little baby girl fuzzit, and *she* fear-poops when the original fear pooper attacks her. Sheesh! Not only that, the little moster darling isn't descented, and she "poofs" at her attacker as well as pooping. Peeee yeeeew! And did I mention that she bites like a sewing machine? Ah well, at least she is adorable and hilarious. :-) cmc -- Christine Code and ferrets Madeline, Theodore, [log in to unmask] Kai, and Augustus Ferret Association http://www2.portal.ca/~cmc/ of Greater Vancouver: http://www2.portal.ca/~cmc/ferrets/fagv/ [Posted in FML issue 1724]