I was wondering if anybody had any suggestions on how to get one of our ferrets to stop overeating. Our female Charmaine who is almost 2 years old has recently (in the last month) starting gorging herself on food. In the last 2 days it seems she has gained a lot of extra weight. She went to the vet the beginning of the month and the vet said she was starting to get fat deposits on her neck near her lymph glands. We have 3 ferrets in the same cage and the last 2 days I've had to fill their bowls both days (they have 2 bowls). Today our male went to his bowl and it was empty again so I gave him a small amount so he could eat, as soon as Charmaine heard me fill the bowl she ran to the bowl and bit our male and started eating the food, she wouldn't let the other ferrets eat until she was done. They are eating Iams kitten food if that helps. Do we need to seperate her so we can restrict her diet? Is there a diet for ferrets? Charmaine has been raised with another female so I'm not sure how she would do seperated from her. The other female (Ferrial) is starting to finally gain weight. She looked very thin when we got them in June. She finally weighs 1.5 lbs which I believe is a good weight for her. If we put them on a diet I'm scared Ferrial will lose to much weight. When we got the girls they were eating kitten chow, and we gradually switched them to Iams. Could it be she just likes the taste of the Iams so much more she keeps eating it? I need to do something because she is starting to get a huge tummy from the weight. The ferrets do get free time. When we are home they get to come out and play for a few hours at least a night. Charmaine (the fat one) doesn't seem interested in playing, she will run under the playpen or other furniture object and sleep. She will run and chase the other 2 for a little bit, but her energy level is starting to decrease. She's never been one for a lot of excercise however. If people have suggestions they would be appreciated. I will call and check with our vet tomorrow, but our vet is fairly new to ferrets so I thought somebody here could offer other suggestions. Thanks, Alicia, Skot, and Tasia and of course Ferrial, Fidgit, and Charmaine [Posted in FML issue 2417]