There's two really big pet stores in my area in northern New Jersey that
carry ferrets.  One is NJ Pets which I think is usually very good, though
only as good as a pet store can be.  I purchased my first ferret there
before I knew much about ferrets at all.  At least from out of books.  I
didn't know about this list at the time.  The last time I was there, one of
the younger employees was playing with the ferrets who were fairly large,
about 12 weeks old already.  She evidently thought it was funny to tease the
ferrets into jumping off the climbing structure and smacking themselves into
the glass before falling to the bottom of the glass cage.  I've never seen
any of the other employees doing that, the rest seem very competant and
helpful.  Plus they carry an incredible selection of ferret stuff!
 
As for the Petco that was just further down the highway, I had nightmares
about.  It wasn't so much that store, but what the employees had told me
where they had gotten their ferrets from.  Evidently the three half grown
ferrets they had were 'rescues'.  Rescues from another Petco in NJ.  They
were being fed /reptile/ food and kept in a small aquarium.  The employee at
that other Petco had evidently been fired for abusing the animals too.
Unfortunately that meant the three this Petco had were rather viscious,
hissing and snarling the moment you opened their cage.  The only female of
the group was this /beautiful/ silver who was really excited about trying to
get out, but only knew how to bite really hard.  The employees there didn't
try to mollify her in anyway, they all avoided her.  Unfortunetly I had only
just aquired another ferret myself, or I'd have taken at least one of them
home.
 
Overall, Petco isn't bad, but I've seen better.  They tended to keep animals
out on display in plastic cages with flip tops so that people and children
could reach in easily to pet the animals.  This also meant there wasn't alot
of ceiling room in those things.  I don't know... they looked like problems
waiting to happen.
 
Esther with Ryouki and Jingoro
[Posted in FML issue 2038]