>From:    alphachi <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: MARSHALL RESEARCH VS PATH VALLEY FARMS: BK's great question.
 
>1) Path Valley DOES NOT KILL their retired breeders, but uses them as "baby
>   sitters".  They are spayed and placed in with the kits, this also helps
>   the kits wean.  These jills are handled often so they are calm.
 
This doesn't make sense.  Ferret jills don't go out with their hobs to see
movies.  What is the purpose of a baby sitter?  Many (most?) jills will not
tolerate another adult ferret in with their kits.  Jills will steal each
other's babies (see the writings of Fara Shimbo) so this really does not
make sense.  But what happens to the hobs?  Big brother program?  Marshall
uses people not ferrets to acclimatize their kits after forced weaning which
is one of the reasons they have such good temperaments.
 
>2) Path Valley generally only breeds their jills ONCE a year.
 
Generally?  Most ranches only get one litter out of a jill per year.  This
issue came up in the discredited articles on Marshall Farms and our
conversation with Dr. Judy Bell.  The Marshall bashing article claimed Dr.
Fox's book states that Marshall breeds their jills for three litters per
year.  However when we read the book ourselves we noted that it said that
only primaparous jills could sometimes give three litters per year with
manipulation of lighting cycles in an experimental setting.  That means only
some jills and only when you start counting from their very first season.
The second litter per year/annual light cycle is from those that go back
into season.  The IFFB (International Federation of Ferret Breeders)
supports this second breeding.  We do not.  The third litter is almost a
year ofter the first and comes about from making the annual lighting cycle
something under 365 days.  When we brought this topic up with Dr. Bell she
literally laughed.  Her comment was that Marshall would love to get that
many litters out of a jill.  She then stated that Marshall would normally
get one litter per annual light cycle.
 
>3) Path Valley COMMUNICATES to it's customer base.
 
How?  Marshall Farms puts registration warranty cards with all of its kits.
Path Valley does not as far as we've ever determined.  How does Path Valley
know most of us customer base that is those from pet store sales?  Path
Valley is communcative with a good portion of the ferret community.  But so
is Marshall when you don't go in with questions that immediately imply they
are evil.  They've talked to us every time we've tried but but despite silly
rumors we have no connection to them.  None.
 
>4) Path Valley SHIPS AT 6-7 WEEKS, this is *only* two weeks earlier than
>   Marshall according to a very large retailer.  However, every week counts
>   and it's a step in the right direction for some.
 
Well we would be much happier if Marshall shipped at 8-9 weeks.  <grin>
Assuming you meant two weeks "later than Marshall", we don't believe there
is a two week difference.  Both ranches use similar means of selling
ferrets.  In fact in Woodbridge VA a chain of three stores was split between
the two ranches as suppliers.  We have never seen a difference in age
between what came from the two farms.  We used to think Path Valley ferrets
looked better structurally but the Marshall ferrets suddenly caught up - we
think due to work instigated by Dr. Bell.
 
>7) YOU CAN VISIT Path Valley and they will happily introduce you to their
>   kits.
 
Now we seem to agree.  Path Valley does retail while Marshall does only
wholesale.  Thats all that difference means.
 
>8) And as stated before, Path Valley NEITHER SELLS NOR PROMOTES THE USE OF
>   FERRETS FOR RESEARCH.
 
Which means Marshall is the supplier of all ferrets for research on vaccines
FOR ferrets.  This is two edged.  If you truly can not condone the use of
ferrets for reasearch and would boycott Marshall over this than a consistent
stand would also be to boycott Imrab-3 and Fervac-D as they were tested on
ferrets.
 
>Wow, these are some major differences!
 
Not in our opinion. But here some you missed.
 
-Its a shame about the food problem they had.  Marshall was luckier in
 their development of a diet for a ferret ranch.
 
-Path Valley was successful at wider distribution of ferrets exhibiting
 Waardensburg patterns (and deafness) sooner than Marshall.
 
-Path Valley is far newer and has changed ownership completely unlike
 Marshall that is still owned by the original family.  The Mortons were
 bought out by a former employee.
 
-Marshall Farms is far more supportive of ferret organizations.  The size
 might be a big reason.  Marshall's problems really come out of this.  One
 organization got support so another that considered them a rival wrote
 nasty but fictional stories about them.  Same thing happened to United
 Vaccines.  Its more political than anything else.  Path Valley is perhaps
 smarter in that they do not seem to support any ferret organization we've
 been involved with.
 
>However, I am curious how such a vocal breeder would hear so little as to
>not be aware of these striking differences between two large recognized
>concerns.
 
We're sorry to disappoint you but we actually know as much about Path
Valley as you do.  We used to recommend Path Valley ferrets at pet stores
over Marshall but we aren't as quick to do that anymore.  We would still
prefer that there were no pet store sales.  But that is impractical at
this point.
 
bill and diane killian
zen and the art of ferrets
mailto:[log in to unmask]  mailto:[log in to unmask]
http://www.zenferret.com/
[Posted in FML issue 2243]