Please, do be careful; many a ferret has required major surgery or has
died of blockages related to hard or firm veggies, or some dried fruits.
(Ditto, of course: rubber, latex, ear plugs, zip drive feet, pieces of
toys, nuts, etc.)
 
Surveys: just do remember that internet surveys have a large number of
sampling errors: those in certain situations are more likely to respond,
there can be purposeful or accident error due to the respondents not
understanding health topics, etc.
 
Vets:go to the FHL and to miamiferret and ferret central (See within
addies below my name) and read the recommended vet lists, the SOS shelter
list (since the shelters give their vets' names and contact info), and
the vet list links.
 
Who is 'Mom/Dad": The only way that ferret is going to decide that she is
the mom is if she gives enough loving attention and provides enough care;
it's not caused by who first picked out the ferret.
 
Alexandra wrote:
 
>  Thunder and lightning,
>  Gray fur and jett black storm clouds-
>  Open my damn cage.
 
YES!  I really like that one!  It has the indirect seasonal component
(the Summer storm) traditionally found in so much of haiku and it has a
nicely flowing defining syllable count of 5 - 7 - 5!
 
Trish wrote:
 
>  Ferret on the move
>  Time stands still on a tick now
>  Ferret stole the tock
 
Oh!  I like that wordplay!  FUN!  I really enjoyed that.
 
>When I sit him in my lap at night to give him his warmed chicken gravy
>soup with a spoon, he expresses with different sounds just how happy he
>is.  When I talk, he talks back!  Sometimes it sounds like he puts an
>exclamation point at the end of a sentence.
 
Have kiss-talker now.  He's the mrrph- mrrph boy.  It's what he says for
kisses.  MANY years ago -- Haleakala used to talk to us and she varied it
a lot so we'd sit and have long conversations.  She actually had a few
consistent words.  Hale could and did drink milk safely (Many can't.) and
Steve loved to pamper her so i always teased him that was why she named
him something like "mkkk!", while I got teased back that I was something
like "pffftt!" which sounds disgusted because she was a Daddy's-girl.
 
>Someone today made a comment about the ones with most medical problems
>coming from Marshall Farms.  Just as their evidence is anecdotal, ours is
>too.  (The sample is way too small).  However, our experience belies that
>completely.  Until someone does a controlled, scientific study of ferret
>health from different breeders, we'll never know.
 
Boy, is THAT ever truly wise, fair, logical, and accurate!  Here we have
had ferrets in the family for about 20 years and the MFs have been about
the same as most of the the rest from any location in health and
longevity.
 
-- Sukie
 
For ferret health info:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Health-List
http://geocities.com/sukieslist
[Posted in FML issue 3748]