In reply to Amy's question re the biscuits I give my ferrets: they are star
shaped "Ferret Complete" which has been available in the UK for around 18
months.  They have also tried a new biscuit "Premium Ferret" - it would
appear that pet food manufacturers are beginning to notice that the ferret
is becoming a popular pet over here.
 
My gangs staple diet is day old chicks (culls from a hatchery), they also
get rabbit when it's in season - I am a strong believer is feeding a
carnivore meat, whole carcase preferably!  They get egg and milk as an
accasional treat, maybe once a fortnight - one egg and some semi-skimmed
milk between 4 to 6 of 'em.  Other treats are anything that we happen to be
eating - they will try anything once, toast is a great hit, ice-cream, human
type biscuits, fruit: bananas, melon, apple, grapes etc.  if they don't
particularly like the food they have 'nicked' they stash it down the settee
or perhaps in a drawer (FLO supplies?  - I must keep Kurt and Deanna Troi
off the pooter.  I think they must be reading FLO communications - could FLO
stand an influx of 16 Brit recruits?????).  They also enjoy a drink of tea -
the only trouble they want to drink it whilst we are trying to drink.  Inga
is a complete and utter Coke nut (the soft drink!) I find it virtually
impossible to drink from a can when she is around, she climbs on my shoulder
and pushes with her nose and her front paws are scratching a scrabbling at
the top of the can - I haven't worked out whether she after the contents or
just likes the can.  She just loves carrying the empty can around.
 
I had to remove Blackie from Inga's gang, he was getting on all right with
them but when I introduced Cameron (a rather elderly chap) into the group
Blackie took an instant dislike to him however, Cameron got on well with all
the others and as he is an elderly ferret I left him with them and took
Blackie out.  I have tried introducing him into Fritz's Mob but Deanna
screamed with fury and attacked him, The Donks weren't too pleased to see
him either.  At the moment I have two ferrets living solitary lives - Stumpy
was only neutered last week so won't really be ready to mix in with anyone
just yet - hopefully both of them will get on together and any new arrivals
(rescues) can join them.
 
I will be looking at some kits this weekend - a friend of mine who runs a
rescue in Liverpool has had in influx of 18 kits.  A chap who had ferrets
had been informed that his jills would die if they didn't have a litter when
they came in season - no one told him about jill jabs, vasectomised hobs,
neutering etc.  so he went ahead and bred from them and then of course he
was stuck with a pile of kits so he appealed to Betty for help.  When the
Welfares/Shelters do their fund raising PR work we try to educate people
about ways to control the breeding of unwanted kits and diet - some ferret
keepers still feed their charges bread and milk - it's like beating your
head against a brick wall trying to convince them that it's wrong!!  All we
get is "I've kept 'em for years so has my father, grandfather etc and we've
always fed 'em bread and milk and they've done all right!  If we feed 'em
meat it'll spoil their workin' cos they'll get a taste for it and 'kill
down' and eat the rabbit!" I always feed Kurt and Deanna before they work -
Kurt has 'killed down' but he made no attempt to eat the rabbit.  In fact,
when we had to dig down for the rabbit Kurt popped out of the warren to see
what all the noise was.  BTW Kurt is still a soppy, loveable ferret - the
fact that he has been used for rabbit control has not changed him one bit.
 
Best wishes to Dayna and Foggy and all shelters in North America.  To all
the USA FMLr's Happy July 4th - 'ummmm should I be wishing you that seeing
that America was once one of our former colonies <GGGGG>?  I wish we'd
trained the F&G of Ca properly before we got kicked out - you wouldn't be
having all that trouble with 'em now!  I wonder if they realise just what
*?@#%* they appear to be to the rest of the world!
 
Sheila
Bolton Ferret Welfare & Newsletter Editor of the
National Ferret Welfare Society of the UK
The opinions expressed by me are not necessarily those of the NFWS
[Posted in FML issue 1621]