Hi,
 
I just fell victim to Ferret Math.  I visited a pet store on Tuesday and
played with a darling little MF female.  She was so adorable.  It was
almost impossible to leave her there (she was the last one and about10
weeks old).  But I did leave her, knowing that my husband would kill me if
I brought her home.
 
Tonight (Thursday), we all went out to dinner (my 4 year old daughter,
hubby and me).  After dinner, we went back to the pet store.  "My" little
female was gone.  She was replaced by a new shipment of kits.  There were 6
of them.  They had to have come in either yesterday or today.  My daughter
wanted to hold one, so I found a very calm one that wasn't nipping.  She
held this little sweetheart for quite some time.  She kept begging her
daddy to let us have her because she had no mommy or daddy and needed one.
She kept telling him that our 2 fuzzies, Dexter and Tracy would be her new
mommy and daddy.  Well, hubby finally relented and we brought the baby home.
 
Now for the questions:
 
1) The pet store says she's 8 weeks old.  Any way to know for sure that
she's 8 and not more like 6 weeks?
 
2) I have never had a young kit.  Dexter was 6 months old when we got him
and Tracy was about 4 months old.  I am not sure how a 6-8 week old kit
should act.  This little female (no name yet) was literally calm enough in
the pet store for my 4-yr-old daughter to hold her for about 10 minutes at
a time.  After that, she would wiggle enough that I felt she might need the
litter box.  After giving her a chance at the litter box, my daughter held
her again.  The kit NEVER tried to nip at all.  There was virtually no
squirming.  Once we got home, I put her in the cage with the older ferrets.
There has been no trouble.  The little one can't do ramps yet, so I've done
some rearranging of the cage.  The baby sleeps.  That is all she's done
since she came home (3 1/2 hours ago).  The older ferrets won't sleep with
her, but they don't fight either.  They seeem to be trying to ignore her
right now.
 
My question is: Is it normal for a kit to act like this or is she sick??
I've heard kits are quite active and nippy, so I'm just wondering... I
don't know whether or not she's eaten anything since we got her.  I do have
wet food in the cage for her.  She is not dehydrated and her eyes are nice
and bright.  She doesn't seem sick except for her activity level.  She has
pooped since coming home, and it looks normal.
 
3) Name suggestions?  My guess is that she will be either a sable or a
cinnamin when she gets older (again, I'm not sure since I've never had a
kit before).
 
Thank you for your help!!
 
Kim and The Dynamic Duo (plus 1)
[Posted in FML issue 2463]