Hello Everyone
 
  Well, with all the to do about the MF ferrets, I have to put my two
cents worth in as well.  I am going to school at Mississippi State and I
acquired all three babies from a vet student from Virginia who also runs
a rescue type operation.  Two of mine she bred from her ferrets from
Virginia and the other (Loki) came from a breeder in Virginia.  There is
a small scale ferret mill near here that
sells ferrets that have had virtually no human contact accept at feeding
time.  The cages are all outside and are never cleaned.  There were piles
of feces as tall as the cages.  I was utterly appalled.  One of my kids
(Taz) was fathered by a ferret from this place.  Anyway, The only
unhealthy one is Loki.
 
     The point I would like to point out about MF is that they may not
sell inferior animals, but when they do sell to the pet stores they
evidently provide no instruction on the care and maintenance of the
ferrets to the buyers.  I live in Tennessee and every pet store I have
seen with ferrets keeps them in wood shavings of some sort.  I have
talked to several store managers concerning this and they treat me like
an overconcerned idiot.  If MF is so respectable why don't they at least
issue some guidelines on the care of the animals that they are making
such a profit on.  Of course this could be the fault of the management of
these pet stores, but for them not to even be aware of the problems with
the shavings is a bit questionable.  Another thing is that I know several
people on the list have older MF ferrets, maybe the problems with health
were not bred into the line until recently. None of the MF kits that I
have seen look anything like my three.  They all have had much more
elongated snouts and bodies.  I don't know if that is a sign of the lines
that they use or what, but they just don't look like any I have seen.
 
     Well, I guess I have taken up a lot of space and said nothing, but
seeing how concerned everyone is with the topic, I had to relay my
experience also.  I am not condeming these poor little guys at all, in
fact, there may come a time when I get some of the MF progeny, but there
is a question about their breeding that still bothers me.
 
Thanks
 
Marie, Oshi, Loki-mon, and Taz-man
 
[Posted in FML issue 0658]