The light exposure and hormonal cancers reading list was posted earlier, but will give it again in part. Look in: Science News 10/17/98, 5/13/95, pg 300, 1/10/98, pg 29, 7/3/93, pg 10 and 8/14/93; "Epidemiologist" May 91 and Sept. 98; "Cancer causes and Control" Nov.; "Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism" Nov. 97; "Molecular Carcinogens" March 98; and "Laboratory Science" Oct 97 Ferret adrenal growth studies do NOT exist, but Judi Bell's letter went into several of her personal observations which might be related; hopefully this will be among the things which still need to be studied as possible triggers. Oh, I heard from several people who used similar lighting situations to the ones Judi described (COMPLETE darkness for a number of hours in each 24 hour period) and they also had NOT seen any adrenal growths. If anyone else has tried that (no matter whether the results included adrenal growth or not) I am willing to pass on your observations to Judi. The sample is a very small one, unfortunately. Nothing negative was in it, but we all know that small sample can be taken as hints at best. In humans the studies began because it was noticed that those without eyes or without working eyes had lower rates of certain hormonal cancers and slower growth of those which they did get. Humans have had the imposition of added light at night FAR longer than ferrets have, plus humans are NOT descended from creatures which have burrow dwelling ancestors in recent time (and thousands of years IS recent when something as basic as hormonal interactions is the topic). Might it pan out? Sure. Might it not pan out? Sure. At this point, though, there is a LOT of related and very intriguing evidence. Do I think that putting the ferrets in a used garage would make sense? No. My major objections would be the airborne hydrocarbons and other nasties which tend to be in garages, and which may be more potentially dangerous than adrenal growths usually are. Don't have risk analysis numbers on this -- just serious reservations. Judi didn't say anything about time. My point was that in the human studies OUR peak melatonin production time is 2 to 3 in the morning, and that this turned out to be an important consideration in the studies; therefore we need to be aware that the peak production times of our pets is NOT yet known (along with a PILE of other things) and that may be a consideration in any future studies if and when there's enough financial and academic support for them. Like everyone else here I'm just learning bit by bit, but I figure if something has a possible solution that's not too hard it sure doesn't hurt anything to try to find easy ways to address the need so that folks are more inclined to try it and see if it helps. Heck, I'm VERY interested in learning from the designs people presented and in getting the blackout curtain fabric used in Alaska -- for cage wrap, or box wrap, or for a bag with added bedding, or for wrapping sleeping boxes, most likely for some combination. Then, I'll just need to somewhere dig up the time to make the stuff... (Wish we hadn't gotten rid of that dark print, quilted sleep sack with interior fleece, but before we knew that Spot didn't have anything contagious we got rid of a pile of things just to be extra safe. I bet I couldn't have shined a flashlight through that thing!!!!!) NO, Judi did NOT say anything about free-range ferrets. Had a LOT of letters from people here who pointed out that their free-range ones seek out very dark places to sleep, though. People HAVE been upfront that this is hypothetical! Sukie [Posted in FML issue 2511]