To Bethie and Pixie:
 
All those foods you mentioned are fine for ferrets.  You can mix and match
them if you like and get your ferrets to like more than one, which might
come in handy if they ever get sick and you have to make a mushlike
substance from their food to feed them.  The main thing to avoid are cheap
cat foods.
 
It's a bit extreme to say that ferrets from pet stores are in danger.  There
is some evidence that European ferrets live longer, and they are not fixed
until they are a little older (around four months of age, I think).  But no
one's done a definitive study to prove it (that I know of), and many
ferrets, especially female, are saved by being fixed before being sold (that
way they can't go into heat and develop atoxic anemia, a usually fatal
condition).  Males that are not fixed and go into heat can become very
aggressive and dangerous to other ferrets.
 
In my personal opinion, if Pixie seems healthy and active and she eats and
she drinks and her stools look normal, there's no need to take her to the
vet.  Unless of course she hasn't had all her shots (canine distemper and
rabies).
 
Dooks and ferret hugs,
Linda, Espie, Frankie, Lucky Charm, and Angel
[Posted in FML issue 1416]