To Anonymous: Please, contact me ASAP.  IF you have vet confirmation of
the young shipping age from DENTAL AGES there is actually someone at MF
who has been doing watch-dog work to stop shipping done too early and has
been very successful.  So far there have NOT been any actual 4 week old
kits sent out when checking was done, but a few 5 week old ones were
sporadically found -- but only during two or three holiday rushes when some
chain stores were pushing ferrets (something which scares the begeebers out
of me).  Otherwise, the reports turned out to not be real when checked,
though some were small individuals.  BTW, I have very small hands even for
a woman and Meltdown was a CONFIRMED 5 weeks when she joined our home from
another location; she fit in the palm of my hand.  Size isn't an indicator
as others have pointed out, since a kit which does not compete as well at
the distributor's or the store's locations for food will wind up small.
Were the eyes closed as would be expected at 4 weeks?  Anyway, if you have
age confirmation from dental ages on vet letterhead I will give you the
name of the person who should receive that letter since he's trying hard
to consistently have none younger than 6 weeks go out.  Your vet can find
dental ages by checking in James Fox's vet texts, or with Bob Church's
write-up, or from Sam's webpage.
 
Here's a question: does anyone have any CONFIRMED info on any of the large
breeding farms/mills/whatever-you-prefer-as-terminology having locations in
multiple countries?  A dear friend who is also an FML member and who does
more for ferrets in a day than I do in a month (won't say who because I
haven't yet gotten permission from her to do so) said that PETA has
reported that one is putting in a facility in Moulins, France, but the
problem is that source has mixed veracity -- sometimes good info but
they've also called ferrets wild animals which survive when turned loose
and which carry rabies so there are three strikes against them.  (Hope they
have learned better since last year.)  Still, they might be right on this,
even though verification is definitely needed.  I'm not saying anymore till
I hear from the friend who told me, but if someone in France wants to check
on this...
[Posted in FML issue 2717]