Tamlyn asked:
 
>are there any new zealanders here that can tell me what sort of ferret
>foods (not kitty chow) are available in auckland pet stores?  i've
>been to quite a few stores but only managed to locate one brand which
>i've never heard of.  also, has anyone tried lm farms ferret
>supplements?
 
I'm just going to offer my opinion here, but every single ferret food I
have seen available on the New Zealand market has been of such incredibly
bad quality, that I personally suggest that the ferrets are fed Iams
Kitten.  Iams has closer to their nutritional requirements than the
"ferret foods" which are available over here.  For a short time, Totally
Ferret was available in New Zealand, however the company importing it went
out of business last year, and no-one has taken up the slack since that
time.  So... I can't help with the 'not kitty chow' bit, but I hope my
response in this point has helped in some manner, anyway.
 
>one last thing - is ferret PAWS defunct?  i cannot seem to contact
>them, and the spca hasn't been any help either regarding adoption.
 
NZ Ferret PAWS and the NZFA have both been pretty quiet lately.  The
person who used to be mostly 'in charge' of NZ Ferret PAWS went over to
Aussie with his job, and PAWS has been pretty quiet since that time.  If
you like, drop me a private email, and I'll see if I can dig up the phone
number of one Auckland ferret shelter.  I'm not sure what they're like,
or whether they have ferrets available right now, but hopefully they'll
be able to help!
 
The SPCA likely won't be able to help - they have fairly close ties with
Forest and Bird, who are so rabidly anti-ferret that it's ridiculous.
Some individual SPCAs have taken in ferrets and have sent them on to
ferret shelters, but I believe most of the SPCAs refuse to even take
ferrets in.
 
HTH
 
Sam
[Posted in FML issue 3578]