It's been quite a while since I posted, but I have a couple questions. I got one ferret, then a second one about 4 months later. The second one was abused with the tool of loneliness (weeks at a time). Her owner also let her get her claws on AND SWALLOW some yarn. When I first got her, she was so unferrety and abused that I was folding clothes, shook lint off of a towel and she started screaming as tho I had hurt her. Since then (about a year now) she's come a long way, although you can still see problems from her abuse. She tends to hide in a corner and sleep, and tense up when you pick her up. However, I'm happy to saw that after the first two months with me, she's dooking again, wrestling with Nosey, chewing on shoes, and sniffing ears. Nosey follows me around as though he's a lost puppy. I walk 10 steps and there he is at my feet, looking up at me. I just have a couple questions, I noticed that Nosey (who is older than Neeko) LOVES to have the back of his neck scratched. He'll fall over letting you scratch his neck. Neeko never used to like this attention until recently... now she loves it too. Is this a sign of a certain age group? Also, in preparation for the coming snow, I'd like my kids to experience snow. I know that if I go and out during cold whether too fast, I get bronchitis. Do I have to worry about this with my ferrets? Or can I just take them outside to romp in the cold white stuff? Nosey has the habit of scratching his hammock as tho he's trying to dig through it. Makes an annoying when he does this to one of the hammocks but the other one used to have fur on it. Now the fur's gone. Is this instinct and can it be broken?? Final question, My ferrets' cage is about ready to be replace although I don't have the money to replace it. The bottom is rusting out and the more I mess with the cage, the worse it gets. In the interest of trying to get the cage to last longer, I've been refraining from changing the litter as often as I used to. There's jsut one problem with doing that.... sniff sniff.... the smell! Is there anything I can add to the litter to keep the smell down (Like maybe Baking Soda/Powder) that won't affect them?? Thanx [Posted in FML issue 2502]