Hello ferret lovers...
 
I've been listening in for a few days now but only now had anything to post,
as I just got my ferret today.  I live in Tokyo and haven't found anything
here in the way of ferret references in English, so the FAQ and this digest
are real lifesavers.My SO (who is Japanese) hasn't been able to find
anything in her language either.  Anyhow, I was going to give her a kitten
for a present recently, and, having had bad experiences with sick free
kittens, I thought we might at least look at the pet shop first.  Man, I was
shocked when I saw that a purebred American shorthair (the cheapest cat in
the store) costs well over 1,000 dollars here.  Luckily, my SO saw a trio of
ferrets, and the kittens were soon forgotten.  We decided to think about
ferrets instead and went home and started searching the Internet, where we
eventually found you all, luckily.
 
Yuri:
 
>because ferret is NEW here in Japan, and a lot of wrong information have
>been had by pet shop owners and even by VET.  Few people know its presence
>here.  My kid, a MF silver mitt, cost about $1,000.00. As the other fearful
>example, I read that some shops sell a set of "a ferret and a pair of
>cutting pliers" because they believe that the cuspid teeth are dangerous
 
Luckily, the places we went to understood ferrets better than the places
you are talking about. We went to the Kojima chain first (the store in
Kameido) but I wasn't very impressed with their care or the condition of
their ferrets. Obviously it's not the animals' fault, but we thought that
we would rather give our business to a better place, plus we thought that
it might be wiser if our first ferret was healthy to start with, since we
don't know what we're doing yet.
 
Anyhow, the shop on the roof of Matsuya in Asakusa had one ferret in a big
cage with a cat - they seemed like good friends and were romping when we got
there.  They had already nip-trained the ferret using the
finger-behind-the-teeth method, cos he was biting the cat's ears.  The sweet
old lady at the shop told us almost everything from the FAQ sheet, gave us
the name of a good ferret vet in our area who could continue the little
bugger's shots, and seemed genuinely sad to see him go.  So not all petshops
are ferret-ignorant here in Japan.
 
Out ferret has only been home for about 12 hours, but he's already had like
three litter accidents.  Sigh.  In his cage, he has a perfect record, cos he
shared the litter with the cat, but outside he's got a long way to go.  He
seems happy and plays a lot, and is friendly - he lets us hold him and falls
asleep in my SO's arms.  He has yet to make a single noise, however.  No
chuckling or dooking or whatever.  What do you think?  Just nervous?  Maybe
he misses his cat friend?
 
Anyhow, does anyone in Japan know where I can get ferretone?  Matsuya
carries 8 in 1 ultra-blend diet, ferretbites, and 8 in 1 shampoo, but no
ferretone, for some reason.  Any Japanese ferreteers know where to buy
ferretone and other ferret goods?  Any good Japanese ferret tips?
 
Thanks a lot to Ferret digest and the ferret FAQ: we wouldn't have gotten
our ferret (a descented, neutered 2-month-old male who my SO has tentatively
named either Ferrechan, Gianfranco Ferret, or Sugawarasan) without you.
 
Sean Carroll (& Mieko Suzuki)
 
PS Ferrechan came with a guarantee from the United Ferret Organization in
Assonet MA that basically says that if he dies of congenital abnormalities
within one year, they'll replace him. Is this a common sort of deal? Can
anyone tell me anything good or bad or inbetween about Path Valley Farms?
That's where he's from, I guess.
[Posted in FML issue 1518]