Monica, the lighting stuff remains hypothetical in relation to adrenals, just like all the other hypotheses out there remain scientifically untested. See the Science News articles mentioned earlier to learn more in relation to why complete darkness may make a difference for hormonal neoplasias (Vol. 154, No. 16); Ask a reference librarian for help if you can't find it. For learning about the hypotheses in relation to day-lighting see http://miamiferret.org/FHC. Steve and I ARE careful about not having night-lights, not having monitors on, providing black cage covers -- having checked to make sure that our's doesn't over-heat, having sleep sacks which block light, etc. for the reasons explained in the article. Besides, it's easy to do by just changing some habits so if the pay-off may be so large, why not? This was discussed recently again, and there is more depth info in older FML posts to be found with the search feature, too. Time is lacking around here for anything more in depth. The proposed mechanism is that melatonin produced within the body during periods of FULL darkness (can be produced in some darkness but the amounts are greater in full darkness) may differ from ingested melatonin -- or there may even be other involved still-undiscovered compounds (always very likely given how little is ever known compared to unknown), and that this naturally produced melatonin and/or other compounds (or compounds in conjunction with each other) act as very powerful antioxidants helping the body defeat the pre-cursors of such illness. It's based upon melatonin having been already described as a powerful antioxidant and upon studies revealing that blind people have fewer hormonal cancers than sighted people, but it is only hypothetical like the rest still. That's why studies need to be done and people need to finance such studies. Which reminds me, someone asked about two of the places which do or fund ferret health work to improve veterinary care. You can get info from MAF's website but the "exotics section" hadn't been done last I saw and there isn't enough in the coffers for the ferret fund right now to fund another study to help our guys. This is off the top of my head: http://www.MorrisAnimalFoundation.org so I hope I got it right. We've been giving to them for years and years. The place in NYC which came up was the AMC: Animal Medical Center. Sounds like it's time to post useful websites for a range of info again: See the one above. Also see: http://www.ferretcentral.org http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/1083/probintro.html In addition, use those to link to a HUGE number of useful websites as your time permits. Ties: Years ago we had two painted. For some reason her name escapes me but it was by the woman who does some of the funny carry-alls and cards, and had ferret t-shirts over a decade ago. If you know who I mean please POST it publicly and send it on to <[log in to unmask]> who is seeking a tie. Every single year there are people wanting ferret ties; some wanting small repeated prints, and some wanting more bold ones. The e-mail of the person who made our's has something like "13 dogs" and "5 cats" in it, or some-such. Shoot, it's on the tip on my tongue, too... ***FERRET STORE PEOPLE AND FERRETWARE -- YOU KNOW WHO THIS IS SINCE YOU HAVE HER ITEMS. IF YOU NOTICE THIS; COULD YOU POST?*** [Moderator's note: No, I don't give out email addresses... this one was in the last ad issue: Linda Gaylord <[log in to unmask]> BIG] [Posted in FML issue 2874]