>From:    Anonymous Poster <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Squeaky Toys
>Everything that I have read up to this point has emphasized the fact that
>Ferrets DO NOT have "natural" hunting instincts, that they are Domesticated
>animals and have been for YEARS.
 
I thought dogs, cats and ferrets which are all carnivores had hunting
instincts.  Some of each species more prominant than others of the same
species.  Some of our ferrets will hunt bugs while others will not.  Just
like with the cats and the dogs.
 
Doesn't make them wild.  Just carnivores.  Ferrets were working animals far
more than dogs and cats in this century in the US.  They still are in the UK
and Australia.
 
There is nothing wrong with this concept at all.  They tend to hunt only
things the size of insects up to rabbits.  Thhis is unlike dogs which will
hunt as a pack much larger animals.  Nobody is all that upset about Coon
dogs still used by hunters.  They are no less domestic then the most
pampered minature poodle.  Our English transplants which are directly the
sons and daughters of hunting English ferrets are no less domestic than our
big "Fat Elvis" who couldn't catch much of anything.
 
In our experience its the jills that react the most to squeek toys and its
been proposed that they think the sound is the sound of a kit.
 
>From:    George Gorka <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: TF
>It seems a lot of people, including myself, want to buy TF but no one can
>find it.  If they do find it, the price is rediculouse.  Why would a company
>that owns a winner not want to sell it?
 
Performance foods does want to sell their food but as a manufacturer they
sell it wholesale for the most part.  Like any start up they have to develop
distribution lines.  Being a company with a single (well two now sort of)
product they have to work harder.  Kaytee for example seels all kinds of
foods so a store can sell Kaytee products and meet the needs of a lot of
pets.  To sell Performance Foods products you only meet the needs of single
species.  By concentrating their efforts on a single food it is a better
product but it is not as easy to place in a retail environment.
 
Its the quality of the ingredients that make the costs high.  High protien
from animal products is far more expensive than lower protien or protien
from corn.  Steak is more expensive than dried beans.  Its the same thing
really.
 
bill and diane killian
zen and the art of ferrets
http://www.zenferret.com/
mailto:[log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 2081]