Hi, well, after reading your post, i decided to give it a whirl and see
if i could ansewer a few of your questions.  (my answers may not be what
youre looking for, but, it is my answers LOL.)
 
>Those of you who feed cat/kitten food, which brand and formula do you
>find to be most beneficial?  (IAMS is really acceptable?)
 
From what i understand, alot of ferret owners do feed there ferrets IAMS,
or Eukenueba...not sure on the spelling on that one.  Although, i do think
it would be a good food to feed them, i would still look into the ferret
foods as well.
 
>For variety purposes, would it be a good idea to feed two or three
>different brands every day?  Or maybe alternate the brands day-to-day?
 
You never wanna just say o.k. today youll have this, tomorrow youll have
that with a ferret.  It can upset there tummies, and youre gonna be
cleaning up alot of diarehia for a long time.  For variety purposes with
my ferrets, i use a mixture of food everyday.  Mine eat Zupreem ferret
food, Sheppard and Greenes ferret food, and Sunseed ferret food, mixed
with VERY little Friskies cat food.  You want to make sure that your
ferret(s) ALWAYS has food/water in its cage or room at ALL times!  There
are unlike a dog or cat that you can feed twice a day, and theyll be o.k.
They always need food 24 hours a day to be available to them, because of
there quick digestive system.
 
>How many pounds of dry food would two ferrets consume each month?  If I
>were to buy bulk (25-30lbs) would it be okay to put the extra in the
>freezer to preserve shelf life?
 
I'm not real sure i can really ansewer this one...I have 10 ferrets, and
go through ALOT of food in a month.  I've never really paid attention to
the poundage on the bags, all i know is i go through a total of about 6
bags of food a month, if not a little bit more.  An estimated average on
that much food is about $80 a month.  Not to mention litter, which is
about $14 a bag, i go through 2 of those a month.  As far as storing it,
ive never tried freezing it, id be afraid of frost bite, or something.  I
use a plastic like storage container with a flip top lid.  It seems to
work great for me.
 
>For Illinois residents: What's this I keep reading that Illinois
>residents need a permit to keep ferts?  Where can I obtain this permit?
 
Dunno nothing about that, im in WV.
 
>Those teeny kits I see at Petco, how long does it take for them to reach
>full size?  I have read that sometimes at 4 months they are already quite
>large (for a fert).
 
Ferrets reach there adult size at 6 months of age.
 
I hope this has helped out in some way to you, or to someone else.
Something that i would like to add though is, i noticed you own prarie
dogs???  I dont know about most of the fert owners out there, but would
it be a good idea to have ferrets and prarie dogs in the same house,
considering prarie dogs are what the domesticated ferrets ancestors use
to eat?  Just something to think about.
 
Anyways, sorry so long...
 
Jennifer
http://www.geocities.com/beadeddrum/CuddleyCritters.html
[Posted in FML issue 3687]