>I have stayed away from chew weasels because I thought they would be
>trouble.  I am curious to see what other people's findings are with this
>product?
 
Cheweasels, Foamy Fries and Marshall Chews (which are the same as
Cheweasels) are all excellent and safe.  They are mostly digestible
gelatin that is very dense.  If they have too much a short course of runs
will occur, but they a great for cleaning teeth and for help with teething
pain.  They are available from a range of places and from the makers:
http://hyperfur.com.  Our's like Foamy Fries the best.
 
>I have a weird one for you.  I have a two year old male blaze badger,
>purchased at Petco that has no markings.  None at all.  No ear tattoos,
>no toe tattoos, not a single marking.  But he has papers stating that he
>is a Marshall Farms ferret.  My vet says that is unlikely.  Are there
>others wiih Marshall ferrets that have no identifying markings?
 
Most likely Petco would have sold you one from a different farm (perhaps
PV since they don't tattoo, but that is "perhaps") as an MF.  A number of
the larger places do NOT keep track of which ferrets are from where and
mix their lots.  It is not a healthy practise.  Haven't heard of Petco
doing it before that I recall but have heard of them having multiple
sources in the past.
 
There are several things I can't help but wonder with any place that has
their own holding (warehousing if truth be told) locations and can't keep
paper work straight (ditto distributors or stores which don't).  I wonder
about cross-infection in mixed lots.  I wonder about the possibility of
backyard breeders' ferrets getting into the mix (though I think that is
more likely with some of the worst-end distributors).  Let's face it, when
rescues such as the Christmas Rescue happen and a LOT of female ferrets
are there who had obviously recently been pregnant but there are NO kits
(as happened in that rescue) those missing kits went somewhere and went
there fast and in large numbers.  I wonder about misidentifications.  I
wonder how a place that can't even clip a folder of papers to a cage
makes sure that the kits have enough food and water to not be malnourished
or dehydrated during the time there resulting in stunting or health
problems.  That is true for too many places.
 
>Anyways the experience I had turned me off... because they sent this
>little one out so young.
 
ALL of the farms, all of the backyard breeders, and some (not many) of
the private breeders do.  That is why we need the state laws that follow
Alicia's law.
 
Aren't there some ferret shelters up in your neck of the woods?  Then
you could take the money saved and use it as the start of savings for
veterinary care, which is always a great use for it.
 
>As I have read about the fake tatooing as an excuse for underage ferrets
>with what feels like regularity over the years here-with never an ounce
>of proof of this-and no one offering any now either
 
Use the FML search engine; last year or the year before there was even a
shelter operator talking about ones with fake "tats" DRAWN on with marker
that were fading over a short period of time.  You either missed that or
just forgot about it.
[Posted in FML issue 3800]