Dear FML'rs,
I have not posted for a long time.  I just got caught up on my FML reading
after re-subscribing just when school (college) started.  I have a few
things that I wish to mention.  About places to buy Totally Ferret: I threw
away the last bag that I bought.  If someone who wishes to be helpful will
get their bag, and look at the bottom, on the back ... There is an 800
number there.  You can post the number to the list, for those people looking
for a place to buy the food.  I called that number after buying a sample at
a pet fair.  The operator helped me find the closest place to my home where
I could buy Totally Ferret.  I live in the Twin Cities area, in Minnesota,
and the place where I buy Totally Ferret is (of all places) a reptile store
that also carries ferrets, and supplies.
 
I have noticed that there is someone who posts by the e-mail name of sabbe.
Perchance we are related?  My maiden name was Abbe.
 
I need help.  We picked up a young altered male ferret a few days ago.  He
is about 14 weeks old.  The poor guy has been staying in a kennel cab when
it's not run time.  My other three ferrets are spayed females, they are all
less than a year old.  During run time Thelma and Laweasel get along fine
with the new boy.  But Beetle (the rescue ferret) is another story.  She
acts like she is afraid/aggressive.  She backs away from him, hissing, and
then darts toward him, if he bumbles across her path.  She has had several
bad scraps with the boy, he fights back.  Beetle starts it, and he fights
back.  Tonight he sprayed, so I judged the altercation to have been
relatively serious.  The good news is that there hasn't been any broken skin
yet, just alot of crying, chasing, hissing, and biting.
 
Beetle had a tough life before she came to live with us.  She was removed
from a garage, by an animal control officer.  The animal control officer had
a fear of ferrets, and so probably used one of those noose thingies.  The
story goes: Beetle had been seen in said garage for about a month before
said officer captured her.  She was taken to the pound where the daughter of
a woman who runs a dog shelter picked Beetle up when they were there to get
dogs.  Beetle was given many strange, and inappropriate shots by the
well-meaning dog rescue people (feline leukemia, something for feline
distemper, and a "combo" shot).  She had hookworms, and fleas.  She has
since received all the appropriate ferret shots, been wormed, and we are
waging war on the fleas.  When I got her she had a really hard time
integrating with Thelma and Laweasel.  Beetle seemed very protective of the
food supply, and still has a tendency to pick fights both in the cage, and
during run time.
 
We have been switching towels back and forth between the cage, and the
kennel cab, giving ferretone to the new boy and Beetle at the same time, and
allowing them to "fight it out" as long as it doesn't seem serious.  I am
just wondering if anyone has any other suggestions.  By the way, Beetle
reminds me of pictures of polecats that I have seen.  She is shorter of
body, shorter in the head, her head is wider, and her eyes are a little
different (bigger).  Her coat is absolutely luxurious.  Does it seem
possible that she is not just a ferret, but perhaps a ferret-polecat cross?
Would that make her more aggressive?
 
Also, can anyone suggest a good supplier of cages that DON'T have wire
bottoms?  I really don't like wire-bottomed cages, the one I have now is
made of wood, chicken wire and linoleum, but the major flaw is that the wood
frame that holds down the linoleum has a tendency to soak up litter box
misses (urine) O.K.
That is enough, sorry to have gone on so long.  See what happens when you
don't post for a long time?  :)
 
Dawn (aka Abbe) Gsoell for:
Thelma, Laweasel, Beetle, and the boy who has no name yet.  What the heck am
I doing with 4 ferrets?
[Posted in FML issue 2095]