This is my first time posting on FML.  I live w/ 4 "kids" & my boyfriend.
We have 2 boys & 2 girls.  Both our girls & our youngest boy were bought
from Petland & they are Marshall Ferrets.  MF ferrets seem to be pretty
healthy right off the bat, but all of the kids are under 2 years old so
geriatric diseases are still a possibility :( We will most definately adopt
our next ferret or two, but the joy of bringing a kit home is unsurpassed
as far as I'm concerned.  Most likely I will purchase another MF ferret,
too.
 
As far as adopting a ferret in Illinois - go to the Greater Chicago Ferret
Association (708) 442-8650.  They are the only ferret shelter in Illinois &
our oldest boy, Rascal, was adopted from there.  They are in need of
financial help (as all shelters are) so if you would like to contribute
time or money, let me know & I'll give you all the info.
 
Rascal leads me to the "Fat Ferret" problem.  When we adopted Rascal, he
was quite the fatty & had a bald belly.  He would only eat Iams kitten food
(from the Tuesday that we got him until about Friday he was barely eating
anything, until we contacted the shelter & found out he was used to Iams -
also he was probably under a lot of stress because our oldest, Miya, was
severly hazing him)& the others eat Marshall's ferret food so controlling
his diet (at first) was not a problem.  But then my youngest girl, Nina, &
our youngest boy, Jack, starting eating Rascal's food.  Now it's not so
easy controlling his food intake.  His belly hair has since grown back, &
we were told by our vet that he is not classified as obese because the meat
on his rib cage isn't excessive, just his big ol' belly!  He rarely gets
treats (unfortunately) but that seems to help a little bit.  We never let
him see us give treats to the others.  IS IAMS KITTEN FOOD OK FOR FERRETS
IF THEY PREFER IT?
 
As far as Hepa filters go, we have an air purifier by Hunter (the ceiling
fan people) w/ a Hepa filter & it seems to work pretty well.  It also has
an ionizer that you can turn on or off - we saw plain old UV ionizers at
the local ferret show recently so I suppose they are not harmful in any
way.  We keep it on the floor & sometimes the kids "inspect it" but it
never does any harm to them.  We have a one bedroom apartment so the stink
at it's worse is barely an annoyance.  But according to my mom the place
smells bad :( We also have a problem w/ the smell of tobacco smoke
infiltrating our home through the bathroom from another apartment & the air
purifier seems to help a bunch.
 
Blackheads on Miya: we used Oxy Balance face wash on her tail every few
days for a week or two & it cleared up.  I've heard it's a common summer
accurance.
 
Welp, bye for now from
 
Amy & Jason...
 
Miya - this looks like fun; danger is my middle name
AKA miya-pants, myiiiya, my, pants n' noodles
Nina - stay away from my bottle cap!
AKA neener, neener beaner, bean, beanie baby
Rascal - stay away from my cup!
AKA tascal, taz, raztaz, razumtazums, razataz, raz
Jack - stay away from my bags!
AKA baby boy, jackson, hackpin, hackpinoodles, furry lil gigalo
[Posted in FML issue 2864]