I realized that there was one issue I did not address in my last positing
about fit or fat ferrets and that was the area of competition.  You
heard me right... competition.  It seems that there is this unspoken
competition on who has the biggest ferret amongst ferret people.  I hear
it all the time.
 
What concerns me the most about this unspoken competition is that in
the desire to have a 5 pounder plus may not necessarily be in the best
interests of the ferrets.  Some of these large ferrets are more fat than
natural size.  And an unhealthy, dangerous weight at that.
 
A year ago, one of our volunteers rescued a ferret from a pet store in
British Columbia, Canada.  This ferret was HUGE!  But it was so big, that
he could not support his own weight and his hind legs stuck out sideways
instead.  His condition is known as Swimmer's Syndrome and refers to the
flipper like way their feet stick out.  As the volunteer did not weigh
him the moment he came home, his actual weight was not known.  When this
little guy ran, he literally looked like a walrus.  He was so fat, I
could not feel his spine, or even come close to feeling it.  My fingers
disappeared in his fat rolls.  In testing his agility, we were able to
determine that his back legs could turn in and be in front of him, he
just could not take the excessive weight.  In the months that followed,
he dropped the weight and now a year later, he is small in comparison
to other ferrets.  But at least he is healthy.  He is a great ferret...
loving and playful and I am sure now, grateful.  His food did not need to
be controlled... he simply needed exercise which his time in the tiny pet
store aquarium did not offer.
 
Now let's turn this situation around... let's say it was not a volunteer
who bought this ferret.  Let's say another individual bought this big
ferret because he thought he was getting a naturally big ferret.  He
would have found out, the same as our volunteer, that the ferret would
not stay that size.  Eventually it would have been dumped at our
shelter's door because it did not turn out to be the one he wanted.
And believe me... it has happened.
 
I think that we in the ferret community have to stop promoting heavy
weights because it does have negative side affects.  For one, it directly
affects ferrets in shelters... potential adopters come in with the idea
that bigger is better, which is not always the case.  Ferrets, regardless
of their size, deserve the chance to have a permanent home.  By promoting
large ferrets, people now get the idea that anything smaller than a
certain weight is deemed as unhealthy which is also not necessarily true.
Ferrets surrendered are now kept longer in foster care because they don't
fit the size quotient that people nowadays are looking for.
 
It would be better for us as a whole to promote healthy ferrets instead
of concentrating on how big they are.  Breeders need to understand that
in promoting the sale of big ferrets that they are skewing the views of
the adoptive homes and turning away potential "forever" homes from
ferrets who really need it.  Of course, people always have a choice, but
they need to make an informed decision based on fact and not on false
information or hype.
 
After all, we're here for the ferrets and that is what matters the most.
 
betty and her blur o'fur
for the love of ferrets
[Posted in FML issue 3957]