For Eden Rain (man, what an appropriate name for a Seattlite !) and her sick ferret Lemke, with his insulinoma, and to anybody else wanting to "bulk-up" their ferret: Good for you Eden Rain, making a soup mixture using TF (Totally Ferret?), garlic, brewers powdered yeast, and did you say, onions? Here at Ferrets NorthWest FNW , these three ingredients we use in our L U M P S recipe, primarily for flea repellancy and the highly beneficial B complex vitamins in the brewers yeast. To "bulk-up" Mr. Lemke, get as much protein into him as you can. Also, give him, in his soup, cooked oatmeal that got four fresh eggs in it (cooked with the oatmeal) and some Ovaltine powder. Get down to your local supermarket and ask the meatcutter, at the end of the day, for the meat debris in the collector tray under the meat bandsaw. Cook this along with a little bit of cabbage, carrots, some potatoes, just as though you were making a stew for yourself, but with the contents just barely cooked, so as to retain as much of the nutrients as possible. Put this stew into a blender and blend it at the highest speed to the SMALLEST PARTICLE SIZE POSSIBLE, diluting the mixture with skim milk to get a semi-heavy soup consistency. Lastly, add 1/2 cup of regular yoghurt and blend in after the soup mixture cools a bit, because you don't want to kill any of the intestinal flora bacteria in the natural yoghurt. You want those living bacteria in Lemke's stomach and intestines. That way he'll live longer, like the Azurbijhanies, who eat goat yoghurt like 3 times a day. By the way, instead of throwing out yesterday's leftovers, dump them into the soup too. Every other day or so, add a couple segments fresh orange, or pineapple to ensure that the vitamin C in the cabbage is supplemented. Basically, this is just about the way I make my home-made soup for my ferrets. As you may or may not know, it's called L U M P S, which being an acronym, stands for Lipinski's Ultimate Porridge Soup. Let me tell you, it's put carpets of fur on otherwise bald naked ferrets. And, what a remarkable change it can make in a biting ferret's personality. It'll turn a biter-scratcher into a kissie-licker. And, I'm fairly well convinced that L U M P S and ECE are never coexistent; that is, no ferret on L U M P S has ever come down with the "green slime." There are some out there who think I'm, how to say it? Just a half bubble off plumb. Well maybe, but I gots lotsa healthy ferrets too. Stand ready to receive from Lempke some of the most beautiful poop you've ever seen . . . like a cigar ! And, that's good, you know. By the way, would you please let us (or just me if you feel uncomfortable) know the name of that lousy vet you first encountered. FNW maintains a listing of such vets who then receive negative referrals to ferreters who call here wanting a recommendation of a good ferret vet. Glueck auf ! (Good luck!) Edward Frettchenvergnuegen Lipinski, Der Frettchenlustbarkeitsfuerher ! [Posted in FML issue 2104]