I too have a small box of Iam's lamb and rice dog bisquits, and my ferrets
love it as well!  Lucky for you that yours haven't discovered how to get to
the box! Dusty is the Master cabinet opener, and he does it every time. They
all stand around waiting as he pries away at the cabinet door until it
finally swings open, then it's 6 big ferrets and 2 small ones all trying to
cram into the little box at once!  I think the ingredients appear to be ok
for just a once-in-a-while treat.
 
One of my horses had to be gelded (neutered) at age 10 months (very early
for a horse - ordinarily wait until 2 years), because he was becoming
unusually aggressive and hard to handle.  I was worried about this possibly
stunting his growth, but the vet assured me that his size was already
determined by his genes.  He grew to be 16 hands and over 1500 pounds - no
little horse.  Could it be that the MF ferrets simply have been bred to be
smaller?  I have a silver mitt male who is small and kind of scrawny.  He
has a tatoo in his right ear, and my vet thinks it is a MF tatoo.  He,
Rascal, was found on someone's porch (someone who was going to shoot him if
I didn't come and get him!), and we never found the owner, so nothing is
known about him, just that he was starving and very tired, and seemed to be
about 2 years old.  He is as sweet and precious as any ferret could be, but
unfortunately he has a bit of a heart problem already (at estimated age 4
now), where his heartbeat is slower than normal and sometimes irregular.
The Enacard helps him.  He also has very big eyes, which makes his face
absolutely adorable.  Has anyone seen this trait (large eyes) in MF ferrets?
 
Melissa was afraid she was at the wrong forum to discuss the fate of the
poor rat with the tumors.  But, rat or ferret or whatever kind of animal, if
we take it in, we owe that critter a permanent commitment of our time, love
and care.  Whatever creature they are, they depend on us for all their
needs.  If we can't afford to take proper care of them, it is our
responsibility to try to find a home for them with someone who can.  One of
our rats had two mammary tumors removed, but the others who suffered from
the same problem, we elected to have euthanized because of accompanying
respiratory disease, which is also very common in rats.  Whatever decision
we must make for our pets, it should be on an individual basis according to
each particular need, but we must give it every help we possibly can, right
up to its end.  I was so saddened last spring by a local person who had
called me several times for advice on how to care for 2 young jills he had
adopted from another person who wanted to "get rid of them" (I hate that
phrase).  I talked to him for long stretches by phone and sent him a large
packet of information as well.  I told him to get them spayed as soon as
possible and in the meantime to watch for signs that they were coming into
heat.  He promised he would.  A month later he called again and said that it
appears the jills were both in heat and apparently had been for some time.
One of them had a cracked vulva that was bleeding a little and she was
lethargic.  I urged and urged and urged him to get them to the vet pronto.
He said he would, but every time I called him back to check on it (every
couple of days), he still had not done it. I even volunteered to help get
them there and bring them back to him, since he couldn't schedule it with
his work, but he kept saying he would probably be able to figure something
out. Then he started saying he couldn't afford it.  I told him those ferrets
were going to die if he didn't do something right how, and I  urged him to
turn the jills over to the local ferret shelter and let them take care of
them.  He said he would. I checked with the shelter a few days later and
they said they had not received any jills in heat lately.  I gave them this
guy's phone number, and they said they would attempt to go get the ferrets
from this guy.  I let it go at that, knowing that the situation was then in
good hands.  But when I talked to shelter people several months later, they
said that the guy wouldn't give the ferrets up. To this day I don't know
what ever happened to the two little jills in heat, and I don't even want to
know.  I get sick thinking about it and literally cannot sleep at night
thinking about things like this. It makes me wonder what in the world is
wrong with people.  I give up trying to figure it out.
 
Joanie Williams and the "Happy Handsfull" - Huggy, Pansy, Daisy, Mr.
Mischief, Honey, Seraphine, Cloe, Silky, Thiefa, Precious, Natasha, Dusty,
Romey, Snowy, Timmy, Tommy, Shammy, Petunia, Maranda, Cinnamon, Tippy,
Frosty, Parming, Pepper, Danci, Buddy, Fooie, Smokey, Desiree, Mickey,
Dinky, Rascal, Sparky.
[Posted in FML issue 1691]