Last week someone stated that they were seeing a lot of very young ferrets
being offered in pet shops and wondered if anyone else had been seeing
this. I responded that I had just purchased one that was 5 weeks old.
 
This was a response, not a brag! I agree that they are too young and
should not be in shops until about 9-10 weeks old. Let me tell you how it
happened.
 
First of all the pet shop is 300 miles from our house. It takes us 5 hours
to get there. Which means if we want a young ferret (and ferret stuff) we
have a 10 hour drive to make. I called the shop and asked if they had any
9-10 week old ferrets. They said they did and we (my lady and me) planed
to take a day off of work and make the drive. We left at 5 am  and arrived
about 11 am. At the shop they had the ferrets in a large plastic arena
with cedar chips on the floor. There were a lot of ferrets. I picked up a
male, dark sable that looked like a linebacker for the NFL. This guy was
huge. I had the one we were going to get. HOWEVER, Barbara had been
looking at a really tinny thing that couldn't have topped out at 1/2 lb..
I asked how old it was and the clerk said 6 to 7 weeks. I looked at the
babys teeth and knew it was only about 5 weeks. Barbara put the baby back
in the cage and it stood up on its hind legs and cried.
 
WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE? right.
 
I gave the clerk my credit card (I also heard it cry) and we took the two
home with us. Another 300 miles except this time we had to leave the main
road and take another route to avoid the inspection station. All the way
home I was sure that everyone was looking at us and saying "this is a
FFZ". The next day we took them to the vet for a check up and their first
shots and the vet agreed that the baby was only 5 weeks old. I hope that
there is a law passed that will stop the stores from selling them too
young however Megan has a good home and I just couldn't afford to take all
those other babys home (even though I wanted to.)
 
        Ferret kisses from Tourie
 
Tourie (gosh dad I have kids)
Farley (52,75,89, hike,hike)
Megan  (watch me launch myself at this guy)
[Posted in FML issue 1192]