I am disgusted to have to write this, but in the interest of education...
*deep breath* I only have one experience concerning mini ferrets, but I
guess I better share it.  This is pretty much what happened:
 
Friend: Hey Susan, I saw a pet store with miniferrets for $500 and
guaranteed to stay the size of a kit for life, you ever hear of this?
 
Susan: No, but the only thing I can think of is: if early altered (at 4
weeks) kits are smaller than late altered ferrets due to growth hormones,
maybe someone is altering early?  I never heard of a *line* of mini
ferrets.
 
Two Days Later
 
Friend: OMIGOD!  I talked to the pet store and they admitted that they get
them from a private breeder who has the altered the SAME DAY they are born.
They said the reason they are $500 is because only 1 in 6 survive the
surgery and that makes them *rare*!
 
They refused to tell me the name of the breeder, the vet or any other
information.
 
So dear ferret lovers, that is the only time I ever heard of *mini
ferrets*.  Now, the question is... IS there a legitimate thing that is a
mini ferret??  Or is the only way they are created is by that disgusting
practice?
 
Now I have had a "mini ferret" before, a rescue who was adopted by my
shelter assistant.  She was confiscated from an unethical backyard breeder
who had underfed them horribly, and had also bred this girl when she was
five months old.  I got her two weeks after this *breeding*, thank goodness
she didn't take.  She was a tiny, emanciated, malnurished, flea covered,
anemic, dehydrated disatser area.
 
She is now over a year old, spayed and healthy as a horse, BUT she still
looks like a 4 month old kit.  The vet says the malnurishment and sickness
she suffered as a young kit stunted her growth hormones and she will never
grow any more than this.  So that is another way to get a *mini ferret* I
guess.
[Posted in FML issue 2921]