Hi!
 
I have yet another pet store horror to report.  My SO and I went into one of
the pet stores up here in Prince George, BC Canada to take a look at the
ferrets.  They were so cute, I decided to ask the lady (actually a teenager)
if I could look at one.  The lady put the glove on and opened the door to
get one out and they all came rushing out.  As she got them back in, she
began pushing/punching/hitting them so that she could shut the door again.
It was the same thing once we were done looking at the ferret, and it was
time to put the cute baby girl back into the cage.  This lady was cruel.
She was pushing them back so hard that they were bouncing off the back of
the cage (actually an aquarium).  I was almost in tears by this point and I
automatically asked to speak to the manager.  He wasn't there so I spoke to
a second-in-charge, and he proceeded to explain to me that the ferrets which
are wild animals are so aggressive that excessive force is sometimes
required when they are getting them out of their cage.  I explained to him
that excessive abuse is only going to make them more aggressive, not teach
them anything.  He told me that there are a lot of different theories out
there concerning disciplining ferrets.
 
Anyways, I was not happy with the way he responded to me and my concerns so
I am filing a cruelty to animals complaint through the local SPCA (Humane
Society).  This is not the first time I have been concerned about animals
there, but I had never really witnessed a incident.  I am planning on
talking to the manager too, sometime.
 
For my questions...My 5 month old ferret Scooter insists on taking food from
her bowl and putting it into her water dish.  She later eats it out of the
water dish.  After watching her do this numerous times, I decided to wet
down her dry food, add some ferretone and heat it a little.  She seems to
like this better, but I caught her putting this wet-down food into her water
dish again.  I also keep a supply of dry food there for her too.  Does
anyone else's ferrets do this?  Also, why do ferrets hiss?  Scooter is
always doing it.  Even when she just walks past us, she lets out a little
hiss.  This surprises us because she is not mean at all, she never bites
unless I play with her and tickle her belly.  Even then however, it is just
little nips, not big chomps.  Scooter also gets bored so fast.  Santa
totally spoiled her this year with $150.00 worth of toys (Santa told us how
much he spent) and she only plays with them for a minute and walks away from
them.  Do other ferrets do this too?
 
Replies:
 
To Gina
I would really appreciate a copy of that pet store fact sheet to distribute
to our local pet stores, especially the one I mentioned above.  If you could
e-mail it to me I would be very grateful, my address will be below.
 
To Jill
Re: tattoos
In Canada, a lot of ferrets are tattooed in their left ear with an H
standing for Hagen farms, in Montreal Quebec.  The right ear can have an X
or an F for female, and a Y or an M for male.  Somebody correct me if I am
wrong, I am a fairly new ferret owner.  I believe that is the way it goes.
 
Thanks for listening, if anyone has any comments or answers, I would
appreciate a private e-mail as something seems to be wrong with my internet
receiving the FML, it always cuts off halfway through so I miss a lot of the
messages.  Sorry my message is so long.
 
Monica, Michael and the baby--Scooter
e-mail:   [log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 1829]