Originally posted by lv4dogs


Most of their smell comes from the oils in the coat. The more you bathe them the more oils they produce, therefore the more they smell. Foods that are high in fish protiens (like marshalls foods) not only make their feces smell worse they also make their bodies produce more oils therefore making them more stinky. They then pass this stink onto their bedding & surfaces.
The oils (and/or dirty living conditions) will also make their coats look more orangeish (kinda like your ferret).

Yes, I know this. But that goes for pretty much any animal. I try to tell clients that come into work that bathing their dog once a week will only make things worse. I found this out a lot time ago with my older ferrets, and I wondered why on earth they would use fish protein. With my older ferrets I bathed them about every three months unless they really really needed it for some other reason, and kept their hammocks etc. washed every few days.

I can see the rings you are talking about, but all of my old ferrets had them as well so I thought it was normal, and they were too all spayed/neutered. I even remember a female of mine having rings such as those, and they were all healthy, had clean cages and never developed adrenal gland disease.

He's already been seen at work ( I work at Banfield Animal Hospital) and he checked out OK. We'll be drawing blood on him possibly tomorrow to make sure everything is alright. I just want to be safe. I planned on doing this before, but our Antech doesn't do the test so the test is going to have to be shipped.

Ya, I have some ferret crack LOL! He's a good boy and lets me clip his nails no problem. I swear he's the coolest ferret I've had. I'm so in love with him already! He's getting used to using his harness and leash too and I've been taking him outdoors to satisfy his digging needs...my bedroom carpet can only take so much!