Hi all.. Just wanted to say that the suggestion of ask your vet is the best one i've heard. we recently went on vacation for spring break and took my only pet sitter with us- my mother. i was sooooo nervous cause i realized i'd never left my cats, parrot & dog with anyone else in over 10 years.. (the ferrets came home with us on vacation so didn't have to worry about a pet sitter yet for them) The vet had 3 names for us one of them a tech at his office, another the wife of another vet, and another lady. We picked one and for $8.00 a day she came by twice- walked the dog, played with the cat.. fed the parrot (he bites anyone but my hubby).. she saw the ferret magazines laying around and asked if we had ferrets cause she loved them and would love to baby sit those to.. said not yet but we'd keep that in mind.. :) we were soooo thrilled when we came home and TJ had done such a wonderful job.. we also left a letter with the vet authorizing treatment of the zoo in case of emergency while we were gone.. on pet birds- we had cockatiels that we placed in january- just have an amazon parrot now who's a spoiled brat.. the cockatiels loved to be loose.. and so we'd put the cats in the bedroom and letthem fly.. i would think you'd end up with deadly results if you had ferrets and cockatiels loose at the same time.. (at least from the way bandit and hobs love to jump and investigate new things) on the other hand.. both of these guys have investigated radar.. a big giggle cause hobs isn't afraid of anything.. puts his little paws up on radars cage.. radar puffs up and screams and hobs is instantly 2 ft back... i laughed sooooo hard.. of course hobs had to do that about 10 times before he decided maybe the parrot wasn't gonna be anything nice to play with.. we let radar out when ferrets are in.. cause i think ray would do the attack parrot thing and trust me his bite is the worst.. hobs & bandit both ignore the bird.. not the cats.. they are fun to play with (whell the ferrets think so) Take care- Sandy- Hobs & Bandit [Posted in FML issue 2630]