Cheweasel-Hyperfur responds to Jennifer's questions.
 
We understand that Jennifer has some concerns about our chew toys and are
happy to have this opportunity to respond to some of her questions regarding
our company, our chew toy formula, the laxative effect and Dr. Susan Brown.
 
1. Human Food Grade Products are products that are government approved to be
eaten by human beings.  They have a much higher standard than those approved
and used in most pet foods.  All of our ingredients are Human Food Grade
Products.
 
2. I will be surprised if Jennifer doesn't receive quite a few responses
regarding Dr. Susan A. Brown.  The reason we selected her, instead of a
local vet, was because she is one of the most renown vets in the United
States when it comes to ferret medicine.  I have never met Dr. Brown in
person.  Faith met her briefly at a ferret veterinary conference.  We sent
her a letter asking if she would test our product to evaluate it's safety
which she agreed to do.  She was given the list of ingredients and samples
to test.  After some months of testing, on a large number of ferrets, she
was so enthusiastic about our toys that she not only said they were safe,
but recommended them highly.  We never paid her a penny for her
recommendation and she is not related to us in any way.
 
3. We have never offered our toys to any distributors.  Anyone representing
themselves as a distributor of Cheweasel was doing so without our
authorization or knowledge.
 
4. We consider our product formula to be a trade secret.  We spent years
developing Cheweasel, testing it, and putting together this small business
to manufacture the toys.  We did it with very little capital and lots of
hard work.  Hyperfur is not a huge operation with hundreds of people working
for us.  We, the owners, do much of the work ourselves.  After all of our
efforts, we are not going to make it easy for another company to copy our
toys.  We have a patent pending, however, the cost of a lawsuit to protect
us would be very expensive.  A lawsuit would take our time and effort away
from helping ferrets live a safer life with our chew toys and other products
we are developing.  When our patent is finally issued, we will put the
ingredients on the package.
 
As for the laxative effect; most ferrets that play with our toys reasonably
don't have any problem with diarrhea.  All ferrets are different and some
will play with the toys for weeks, while others will devour them over hours.
If they eat a lot of the chew toy over a short period of time, there is a
fair probability of loose stools.
 
Most ferrets LOVE Cheweasel.  They derive hours of sheer pleasure chewing on
our toys.  Regular chewing on the toys helps clean teeth.  It also offsets
chewing on other objects that are dangerous thus helping to prevent
potentially deadly bowel obstructions.  The slight laxative effect my guys
have experienced has actually helped them pass hairballs.  When you consider
the benefits of Cheweasel, it seems clear to me that it is the best choice
as a chew toy for ferrets.  My partner and I developed the toys for our own
pets and our pets still enjoy them.  We put together this company to share
our invention with ferrets all over.
 
Don Hunt and Faith Arnold
Hyper-Fur Ferrets' Products
Makers of CHEWEASEL edible ferret chew toys,
Visit our web page at: http://www.artnet.net/~hyperfur
[Posted in FML issue 2291]