We regularly visit a Pet Supermarket near us and look at the little
Marshall babies in the display.  This particular store location actually
does a pretty good job of caring for them.  But...we have seen *several*
of these little babies who cannot be anywhere near 8 weeks old.  Some
still have their milk teeth!  These babies are shipped from Marshalls to
a regional dist. center, and from there to the stores, so there is NO
WAY Marshalls can honestly claim that they never ship before 8 weeks.
Unfortunately the dist. center goes the extra distance to manage to lose
the birth documents, so we have no proof.
 
I really believe this is a case of Marshalls shipping too early - NOT
a case of the store requesting ferts so young.  The manager at this
particular location seems to share our dismay at the youngsters.
 
As for the ferrets themselves, we have all Marshalls and they are a joy.
The claims of excess health problems in Marshalls ferts are statistically
unproven and appear to be unfounded.  The ferrets are great!
 
As for Marshalls products and business practices, well, that's another
story.  We avoid purchasing any Marshalls products (other than the
ferrets) to avoid "feeding the machine."  We don't want to encourage them,
and would love to see more ferrets from more reputable breeders (Path
Valley Farms, perhaps?).  Unfortunately, once these little guys hit the
stores, they need good homes just as much as non-Marshalls ferrets do.
 
Roger
Digger, Bear, Fox, and Sniffles
[Posted in FML issue 3730]