Hello to everyone on the FML.  I am a die-hard ferret "enthusiast" and have
enjoyed seeing, watching, handling, and playing with ferrets that have owned
friends of mine in the past.  I have been doing some reading of ferret
books/magazines, reading the ferret board on the WWW, and reading this list
for the past few weeks and have a few questions I would like to ask before I
make the final decision to bring my first ferret home.
 
1. I have read about ferrets requiring vaccinations every year, but the only
   vaccination required is a rabies vaccination.  However, I have been
   reading numerous posts to the FML about people bringing their ferrets in
   for yearly distemperment shots.  I was told by my friends and have also
   read in a few books that ferrets only require 3 distemperment
   vaccinations: one at 8 months, one at 11 months, and one at 14 months.
   Which is true?  Are they both?  I'm confused on this.
 
2. Is it true that one ferret will react to different people in different
   manners?  While at a pet store one day I noticed they had a new litter of
   ferret kits.  I asked the pet store owner if I could see one up close for
   a few minutes and he obliged.  While I held the ferret, it seemed curious
   about me, but rather calm and simply playful.  When I passed it to my
   girlfriend, it freaked out and began running all over her, around her
   neck, down her back and I had to struggle to catch the thing!  Could this
   simply have been a reaction to her perfume or some other smell?
 
3. Does the color/type of the ferret have anything to do with it's
   temperment and/or smell (Other than the sex)?  I know that "in general"
   female ferrets can be a little more hyperactive while males tend to be
   more of a "lap ferret".  But what about their smell and temperment in
   relation to their type/color?
 
4. Lastly, I have been considering trying to find a breeder in my area,
    simply because of an experience at a pet store recently.  I asked the
    store owner the age of the only ferret she had left and she said "I
    think it's around 2 years old or something like that." The ferret also
    had a blue tattoo inside it's left ear.  When I asked about what shots
    it has had and whether or not it was desexed/descented, she replied "Oh,
    I really have no idea." I was under the impression that ferrets always
    come with documentation bearing this sort of information.  Should the
    pet store have had this information?  What sort of complications could
    arise from the lack of this information?
 
I appreciate any and all comments/answers/helpful hints anyone could give me
either in private or to the FML which would help in my final decision making
process.  They are IMHO the most adorable pets I have ever seen, and I want
so badly to bring one or two into my home to live with me.  However, I want
to do what is best and make sure I am doing the right thing(s) for the
animal(s)...hence my abundance of questions.
 
Thank you...
 
- Jeff   (hopefully future ferret adoptee!)  :)