>What other guarantees were offered? Did she offer any guarantees on
>health? Guaranteeing the ferrets are free of MF lines doesn't mean
>much - MF doesn't sell pet ferrets intact.
She showed me her breeders, and I met her vet, who also did a fair
amount of work for shelter ferrets. He examined them, gave them their
next round of shots, etc. I am hard to impress, but as an experienced
ferret owner and ferret rescue volunteer, I was impressed with her, the
ferretry, the vet and his staff. Anyway, she guaranteed a partial
refund when I sent proof that they had been spayed, (I sent it, but
told her to donater the refund to the rescue),and gave an unconditional
guarantee for one year of any health problems found once I got them to
my vet, or any due to inherited defects. She also guaranteed that she
would take them back at any time (w/o refund) if I was unable or
unwilling to keep them - did not want them to be pawned off on some
shelter or just given away arbitrarily. (In that event, she would keep
them with the shelter ferrets, and adopt them out per their bylaws).
she kept in touch on a regular basis, and when one of her cinnamon
breeders became adrenal, she notified the people who adopted from her,
had the tumor removed and later had him neutered. I offered to adopt
him (he was huge and gorgeous) but she said no, he was one of her
special babies and would be kept as a personal pet.
>Also you mentioned neutering at 6 months - that is still IMO an "early"
>neuter because they are not done growing at that age. Over a year would
>be a better time to neuter IMO.>
>
>May I ask what color these ferrets are? How old where they when they
>developed these problems?
My two girls, Sugar (probable red eyed white) and Taz (shaded silver w/
blue eyes) were almost 4 months old when I got them. I say probable,
because based on her lineage, she came from a line of REWs - which when
bred, give birth to white and other colors, unlike tru albinos.
However, she could have been albino - I never bred her to find out ...
she had the most amazing red eyes - like rubies - and I named her Sugar
because she was so sweet (and white). Taz was a little Tasmanian devil,
tiny, and hissed to warn others when she was not happy ... loved to
climb in my hair and re-arrange it ... they were littermates, and
totally devoted to each other, but total opposites in personality. I
didn't want to get two from the same litter, and decided on Taz, who
went into a total decline when I got her home - would not integrate
with my other ferrets ... so I had my ferret buddy bring Sugar down
when she went up to get her one (which became two) .... But I have
had equal numbers of sables (my favorite), silvers, and albinos ....
oddly, all of the ferrets who developed lymphoma were dark sables ....
Petunia, Prissy, Max, Bogie & Brandy. Of the group, only Bogie was
somewhat successfully treated w/ chemo - he lived another 18 months.
(He was four, Prissy was almost 6 years old when diagnosed, the other
were under two years old).
I do think it is wrong of private breeders to advertise they never have
these problems when I know some of them have produced such problems.
However I still feel that there is a better chance at good general
health when you start off with a kit who wasn't removed from the mother
too young, wasn't put through surgery and vaccinated when they should
still be nursing, wasn't shipped out to petstores at barely old enough
to be away from their mother ....
If you read my previous message - no advertising was involved. I
tracked her down, and no promises were made, just that she shared the
same concerns we all had, and was trying to breed a healthy happy well
adjusted ferret. She did not like to sell them before 3 months, which
I believe worked to her detriment, since only hardcore caring ferret
people are willing to wait that long ... In my opinion, she didn't
charge enough ($130 with a $30 rebate for proof of spay/neuter) to
cover her expenses. She was working a fulltime job to pay for the
luxury of improving the line - and her hubby helped with everything,
bless him. She also had a friend or two to help, but like most, carried
the bulk of the responsibility herself. These are the kind of committed
people I applaud and support, not the pet stores .... let's face it,
the pet stores are the ones driving the indiscriminate mass breeding,
regardless of how well/poorly they treat their little charges ....
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.
[Posted in FML 5487]
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