Mary, Rocky & Minnie In response to your post of Dec 30th. Some time ago we received a rescue who was very obese. Sadly this ferret passed away due to complications involving a ruptured tumor on his liver. During his initial vet check I discussed a weight loss program with our shelter vet. I'd like to share with you his advice. I was told that a weight reduction program should be carried out slowly over an extended period of time and that the way to do this was to gradually reduce the fat content of the food. It was explained this way: If you currently feed your ferret a kitten formula dry food then start adding the adult formula of the same brand. Slowly wean out the kitten food. He suggested this process should last as long as a small bag of the adult food. Next purchase a small bag of diet food and repeat the process to wean him of the adult food. He stressed that it should be done slowly and could take up to a year. Having other ferrets sharing the cage and food bowl will be a challenge, however it sounds as though Minnie is over a year old and so sharing, at least in the beginning, shouldn't cause any problems. While going through the process of reducing the fat content you might consider using two smaller food bowls in the cage and possibly feeding them several times each day rather than keeping a constant supply of food in the cage so that by the time you're down to the diet food they might be used to eating out of separate bowls. I've never tried this so I don't know if it will actually work, but its at least worth trying. I hope Rocky is successful in losing his extra weight. Barb Gustafson (aka Boots) Alberta Ferret Society You can respond to this e-mail online. If you have ICQ my ICQ# is 1092229 If you don't have ICQ you can page me through: * My Personal Communication Center: http://wwp.mirabilis.com/1092229 (go there and try it!) * Or you can send me e-mail to [log in to unmask] You can download ICQ at http://www.icq.com/ [Posted in FML issue 2543]