Nancy Tubb asked about first hand experience with ferrets and birds: My first ferret, Virgil came to me when I already had a yellow naped amazon parrot. The parrots perch was up high so the ferret couldn't get to him. Unfortunately, Charlie (the parrot) thought Virgil was the devil incarnate and screamed at him whenever they were in the room together. One time Charlie jumped to the floor to get closer to his enemy. Virgil became a streaky blur of fur and in seconds had Charlie by the neck and had dragged him under the sofa. I upended the sofa enough to get hold of Virgil by his tail and pull him out form under the sofa. Charlie came with him. Feathers flew. Charlie did too. I was left with one bemused looking ferret in my arms and a very indignent bird hurumping and fluffing himself with feathers upraised and with his eyes flashing. Virgil went to his corner (actually behind a closed door) and I had a chance to examine Charlie who was unscathed except for the loss of a few neck feathers. I don't know what would have happened had I not gotten to them as fast as I did. I have never seen a ferret move as fast as Virgil did when he got the chance to take on that "nasty, noisy" bird. My opinion is that birds and ferrets need seperate rooms, especially if they are left unsupervised. The parrot was upset whenever he even saw the ferret. On Virgil's part, I'm sure the noise was not pleasant. Despite the claims that ferrets have lost their hunting instincts, the ones that I have owned still have the "grab by the neck and shake till its dead" instinctive behavior toward smaller animals (and squeaky toys). Max [Posted in FML issue 1844]