From:
Pat Andrews
Date: 2001-04-09 15:51:00 UTC
Subject: keeping ferrets in the dark
Regina wrote about being curious about how darkness is not
constant in nature. That's very true (one of my pet hobbies is
astronomy!), but keep in mind, in nature, ferrets sleep in
underground dens. Light doesn't get down through soil very
well unless a ferret drags a flashlight down and figures out
how to turn it on...which I wouldn't put past a ferret for a
second!
I would imagine people have done the cyclical light variance,
but I'm not one of them. I suffer from seasonal depression in
the winter. Between that and wanting to see my ferrets other
than Saturday and Sunday when I'm off during the day I just
have give up their "natural inclinations" to allow them to be
my pets. If this injures their health I have to be
philosophical about it because I'm sure that not interacting
w/ me 5 days out of the week for a number of months would have
just as negative influence on the little cuties.
I don't know about anyone else, but my ferrets do come out and
play in the middle of the night. I either hear the cage
rattling or, if I can't find someone to put them in their cage
at night, they find my toes (yeowch!)
Pat and the Furry Inspirations, missing Sonny & worrying about
Tess
I've noticed that when the people who keep their ferrets
dark at night talk
about their setups, it seems that the night environment is
kept as dark as
possible, with private rooms, heavy cloths, etc. One thing
that strikes me
is that in nature, darkness is not a constant-- it varies
with the moon, and
some nights can be very bright, relatively speaking. Does
anyone try to
cyclicly vary the degree of darkness their ferrets are
exposed to, to try to
emulate a more "natural" experience? Or would this not
matter, for reasons
of which I'm not aware?
Regina
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