Just a note on my experience with winter coats this year. This year Pepsi might actually get one. He hasn't had a decent coat in a long time, but he had his adrenal surgery two weeks ago. The hair is growing on that cold little tail already. I can hardly wait to see him back to his beautiful DEW self. He never showed any other signs but hairloss. He stayed the most active of my crew (7) and was always on my toes. I won't say heels, because he is deaf and is constantly in front of me trying to make eye contact. About three weeks ago I noticed Max had signifigant hairloss all over his body. My first reaction was, oh no, not another right now,I can't afford it. Every day it was getting worse until about a week ago I noticed he was starting to grow new fine hair everywhere. I have had ferrets for about 15 years and have seen some very dramatic coat changes, but not like this. I think this will be the year Max turns silver. I have moved to a few different climates in the past several years and these poor guys don't know what they are supposed to do. Dixie, Dweezil, Salty Dog, Max, and Pepsi all had bald tails this year. Butler and Flye were the only ones to retain any tail hair. Everyone is growing hair now, ever poor old Salty. He was in very bad shape when I adopted him from Juliana in Georgia. Now he is active and happy but does have an enlarged spleen(the next operation). Now that my crew is back in Canada (that was a feat in itself) they are all putting on their woolies. They are also exposed to a great deal of constant natural light, which may have something to do with it. We are all shuddering at the thought of winter in Alberta, but the great people of the Alberta Ferret Society warm it up considerably. .............................. . Pat and the wrecking crew . . Edmonton, Alberta, Canada . .............................. [Posted in FML issue 2486]