I used to work at Pet World, a large scale pet warehouse in Milwaukee WI.
When I first started at Pet World they kept their ferrets in Pine bedding,
with no litter boxes (because they will just &hit) anywhere, so what is
the point.  They were kept in large bins that were imposssible to clean,
and were only dissenfected 2x a week.  Also the two bins were connected
by screen, so if the ferrets on one side got sick, they all got sick.
 
Well I argued against the pine bedding but I was told that it was the only
price wise bedding.  I also argued agains the large bins, saying that they
were too hard to clean.  I got some backing on that and we got smaller
bins.  I also rigged up litter pans to fit the cages so that the pans
would be changed 2x per day (and to do that I had to pull teeth.) Then we
only ordered 12 babies per cage.  (Mind you they got 3 doz.  or so in each
big one.) A short time later a small ferret came in, and one day while
cleaning the cage (I cleaned and dissenfected the cages daily) I noticed
something wrong with its hind end.  Poor litte girl (later named rain
drop -- because of her size) had a prolapsed rectum.  Because -- she ate
the pine bedding!  This poor little girl had to go through 2-3 surgeries
trying to fix her poor little bottom.  (Raindrop was **DONATED** to The
Ferret Den when she required Vet care.) This caused the store to then keep
the ferrets on Paper pelletd bedding.
 
When they called Marshalls about this, I had to laugh, because Marshalls
said that they should be kept on blankets with hammies.  How about that
Marshalls to the rescue!  Ha.  Well anyway I wanted to share with you the
trouble I had getting my store to change, but do have the store call
Marshalls and ask for a recomendation.  That might help.
 
Jen Ahler
PS
The Ferret Den and myself got various other babies that would have been
allowed to die (store not willing to pay vet bills if not compensated by
Marshals).  Very sad, but at least we were there.  If you can make
yourself be nice, leave a name/number for yourself/local shelter so that
sad babies have a place to go.  And there are so many "bad" and "biting"
ferrets that people want to return.  You certainly don't want them to sit
at the store!
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[Posted in FML issue 3616]