Q: (Private Posts; FML): Can ferrets see reflections? Can they see their food? Can they see color? How far can they see? A: Well, lets SEE...it may take a moment to respond because I've been BLINDED by the intelligence of the questions. I'll try to act like a LENS to focus the answers clearly. IRIS-el with these questions all the time... Ferrets seem to be quite nearsighted, no doubt a response to their adaptation to a burrowing lifeway and reliance on smell to find prey. As far as can be determined, their close-up vision is as sharp as ours, and perhaps a wee bit sharper. One of my e-mail pals is doing some work on astigmatism in animals as an adaptation to hunting and predation pressures, and preliminarily suggests the ferret has an eye that is astigmatic in the horizontal mode, which she suggests is an adaption to flying animal predation. As for color, wild polecats see the long and short ends of the spectrum; that is, the blues and red. However, some studies suggest domesticated ferrets have lost the ability to see the blues, so all the color they see are the reds. This is also probably an adaptation to a burrowing lifeway, but is also common in predators that hunt in the dark. Can they see their food? Sure, except for the time it is directly under their nose, and a couple of sties have shown the ferret suffers a blind spot in that location. So they can see the food as they walk up to it, but when they get their, it's up to the nose to find it. If you watch the little boogers closely, they start a shallow and rapid breathing at that time, presumably to home in on the food with their noses. Can they see their reflections? Well, not if they are of the vampire variety of ferret, somewhat common on the FML I've been told. Sure they can, as long as they are close enough. They can also see the images on TV, bright light spots from flashlights (some of mine love to chase them), floating dust motes, and dangling earrings. My son found my old pong game (am I that old?) and hooked it up to the TV in his room, and several of the ferrets (Bear, Chrys, and Nosette) spent considerable time watching the dot bounce on the screen. Andrew thought the game was lame, but had a good time with the ferrets. Sam-Luc, Sandy, and Ballistic regularly go after stuff on TV programs, especially if the object is small and moving horizontally about the speed of a mouse. Q: (From the FML) Do ferrets get along with rabbits? A: They rarely argue after the rabbit's death. Ferrets are domesticated polecats, and the natural prey of the polecat includes small and medium sized birds, frogs and toads, rodents of all sizes and rabbits. The size of the rabbit compared to the ferret is of little consequence; stoats (about 1/2 the size or smaller of a ferret) will regularly kill rabbits. the effect of domestication on the hunting instincts of ferrets seem to be variable; some ferrets live and never bother animals that might normally be seen as prey in a wild state, and others will lunge out and kill them. Stella, my fat butterball, moves like greased lightning at the first detection of a rat, but Bear will sleep with pets rats. Personally, I never feel comfortable with putting any prey and predator species together; it doesn't matter if the predator species is a cat, dog, or ferret, it just isn't safe or reliable for the prey species. They might get along for months, then one day you are shocked and wondering why the sudden change. And just because a ferret might get along with a rabbit doesn't mean the opposite will hold true. Rabbits evolved being hunted by mustelids, and take them very seriously. And prey species are not without means of defending themselves, either. Rabbits in particular can be quite dangerous to stoats and polecats, and every ferreting book I've ever read is loaded with stories of how ferrets come out of rabbit warrens (burrows) covered with wounds from angry rabbits, or in ratting, covered with rat bites (One book said it was about a 50-50 chance the ferret would win in a fight with a rat, and having been at the business end of wild rats, I believe the writer). The rabbit has a kick that can eviserate a ferret, teeth that can bite through a skull, and the size and speed to do both. In a burrow, I think the ferret has the advantage, with the long neck and lightning speed, but in an open room, I think those advantages are lost. Why take the chance? I would be reluctant to put a ferret in the same room as a rabbit. If you do, don't be shocked if either pet is injured or killed. Mo' Bob and the 17 Missouri Mustelids (In Memory of Buddy and Gus) [Posted in FML issue 1867]