>In my personal opinion, I believe in adoption and rescue, but if
>someone wants to buy a ferret, they should find a dedicated breeder,
>and buy from them - whenever possible. My 2-cents was, I personally
>haven't seen any difference in breeding, age of neuter, feeding,
>exposure to light, vaccine issues, etc.

I sure have seen differences in my petstore vs. privately bred ferrets.
The only adrenal ferret I have had in 13+ years of owning them is my
Ophelia - a year and a half old MF girl. The early neuters don't
develop the muscling that late alters do or the sex characteristics and
their structure is often poor. My late alters also seem more
intelligent in general, although my PV girl is a pretty smart little
fuzzy. I believe it is due to early altering making them retain a more
"kit-ish" personality, as I have seen it in dogs as well.

Now all that said I love my petstore ferrets as well. Out of eight
fuzzies three are petstore ferrets and they are all wonderful ferrets.
I had a PV rescue boy for years who was a favorite of mine because he
was so sweet and nearly "dog like" (followed me around, slept on my
lap).

My privately bred ferrets, to me seem to have better general health. I
also feel though that my method of caring for the ferrets helps with
their general health as well. I feed a raw diet, don't over vaccinate
and they live in their own room which is a nice temperature for them
and darkish all day. I do think that if privately bred ferrets are
neutered early, fed a typical diet and cared for in a typical way they
are likely to develop typical problems. I also feel that there is a
genetic predisposition to adrenal and insulinoma as well, since some
ferrets don't develop them even with typical care.

JMHO of course,
Nikki

[Posted in FML 5488]