While we are on the topic of ferret training, I thought a mention of the challenges of training ferrets might be in order too. Take heart if your ferret quickly loses interest in your training efforts; some ferrets just have too much interest in other things going on around them like the cutie in this video. It is best to keep training sessions short and fun and always positive. And remember all ferrets are individuals and some just aren't into formal training sessions at all!

I'm always on the lookout for more exotic pet videos on YouTube. Do you have videos of your exotic pets that you want to share? Submitting a YouTube video is easy -- all you have to do is tell us a little about yourself and provide the URL where your video can be found on YouTube, via this Video Submission Form.

Image © Krissandra22

Ferrets are pretty intelligent and can be taught some tricks, as I've mentioned before. I dug up a short series of videos on YouTube that cover the initial steps of training a reasonably simple trick and compiled them with some comments in Training a Ferret to Shake a Paw. Though the videos do not show all the steps to teach this trick, I like the videos because they nicely illustrates the concept of shaping behavior by breaking the trick down into small steps and starting out by rewarding the ferret's very general initial attempts at the small steps.

More about pet Ferrets:

• Ferret Care
• Ferret Training - Litter Training

Molting hermit crabs are under tremendous stress. The best way to help them is to make sure they are in an environment that is ideal for molting, but otherwise leave them alone to get through the molt. There are different ways to make sure they are in a good place as well as safe from other crabs during this vulnerable time, and these are discussed in the Molting Hermit Crabs FAQ.

I was a follower of the "don't interfere" method for molting, and mine all molted a couple of times each with no problems. They did tend to disappear for a long time, and just when I started to believe they must be dead, they'd reappear, freshly molted. However, over the last year, Sirius Black then Harry Potter disappeared under the sand for the last time, and never resurfaced. Other than their shells I never found any trace of them. I suspect that they were molting and that my large, and sometimes rough, Ringshark had something do with their disappearances. As a result, I think I am converted to the "do something to protect the molting crab" camp, although I haven't had the chance to test protection methods out. On the bright side, Ringshark is still thriving, and just emerged from a molt where I didn't see any trace of her for at least 6 weeks (I was sure she must be dead...but she's back -- bigger than ever and very hungry!).

Photo © Lianne McLeod

In our continuing series on pet names, let's talk about names for frogs and toads. There are quite a few great names in the frog and toad names list I started before, but I'm always interested in how people chose their names. Did you have names picked out before you got your frogs? Or did you wait to see what your toads were like before settling on a name? Please share your frogs' names by adding them to the comments section below. Feel free to share how you chose names too! I hope to compile all these names to update the master list of frog and toad names, as well.

Image © American Images Inc / Getty Images