I totally agree with what Sue posted yesterday about the public and Pet
stores being the problem.  If the Pet store would absolutely refuse these
tiny babies, MF might finally get the picture.  People keep complaining,
yet they still buy them.  I admit I'm guilty myself.  I've gone into my
local pet stores and seen these tiny babies and "felt sorry" for them.  So,
of course "I" can care for it properly, therefore I purchase it.  Now the
pet store has made another sale and do they care about "why".  No way, now
they have to order more ferrets, because they're all gone now.  If people
are not willing to wait when kits are not yet available, then it's more of
an impulse buy and they probably should not be getting a ferret anyway.
Like Sue said, when they are that tiny, all they do is sleep and they are
very easy to keep under control.  However, we ALL know this is not true as
they get older.  The amount of things they are able to get into and destroy
is amazing.  Uneducated impulse buying people have no way of knowing this.
And they DO end up in shelters very soon after they find this out.  About 3
years ago, the local pet store in my area, was getting a dozen babies a
week and selling them as fast as they came in.  It has slacked off some,
but not much.  These kits are usually about 4-5 weeks old.  They wobble
when they walk and still have their milk teeth.  They tell you to feed them
soft food so their rectum doesn't prolapse.  Forget that, they can't even
eat hard food because they don't have the teeth to chew it!  Most times you
don't even get told that much or even get the paperwork and info the farms
give.  Most of the people that work there don't know that themselves.  I am
appalled that some pet stores are getting and accepting them so young that
their eyes are closed and they still have stitches from their surgeries.
They refuse fish that look unhealthy, why not ferrets?  It's a wonder any
of them make it.  I've had some that just screamed and cried and constantly
had to be held.  These poor little creatures go through so much from the
time they are just a week or two old.
 
Sorry I'm rambling, but the point is, pet stores need to refuse babies that
young and we as the public need to stop buying them to help them.  If the
stores were adamant to MF that they would only accept older kits that were
lively and able to eat hard food on their own, the situation would get
better.  Once again, the all mighty dollar comes first.  MF and the pet
stores make the profit, and we end up with all the emotional and physical
expense of really caring for these babies.  They create the problem and
we clean it up for them.
 
This was longer than I intended, but it makes me sick that babies that
young are being taken from their mothers and shipped.  That in itself is
enough to mess up an animal for the rest of it's life!  When is it going
to stop?
 
Nicole
[Posted in FML issue 3025]