Hi there,
This is in response to the "Moving to California" posting and i also have
two quick questions!!
 
Moving to California:
I actually live in Northern California right now, and you would not
believe the number of ferrets in the area I live in!!  What I would
advise on keeping ferrets here is to find a place that allows small
caged animals, but do not mention the fact that you have ferrets to your
landlord.  There may be some few landlords that are okay with illegal
animals, but many will have a problem.  You could play it smooth and
build a relationship with your landlord and slowly find out if they're
ferret fans or not.  A major issue you may face is your landlord
reporting the ferret(s), then you may be forced to face Animal Control
or whatever service is out there that keeps track of illegal animals.
Usually, if someone complains, they may come to your house to search, but
you can refuse the search if they do not have a warrant.  Unfortunately,
a not-so-nice landlord may be able to get the search warrant to the
control peoples.  There are PLENTY of resources to keep up a healthy
ferret in California, since many vet hopsitals treat them now, but the
major issue of course, is getting caught.  Sometimes they are euthanized
on site, although I believe more are just being shipped to the nearest
shelter in the next state over.  I hope this helps!  There's also the
ferrets annonymous site that has some inform ation about keeping the
little fuzzballs in California (www.ferrets-anon.com).  Anyway, this is
just my opinion!  Better to be safe and keep secrets, than to expose and
potentially lose your loved ones.
 
Question 1:
I'm feeding my ferret (Mika) a raw-meat diet, I've heard it's more
healthy for ferrets and actually have been known to live longer...so I
was wondering if there were any recipes people know of or websites of
recipes where I can give li'l Mika some variety in her foods...I know
it's more expensive, but...if it helps her live longer and healthier..so
be it!!  I actually just made a chicken mix for her...and she doesn't
seem to be liking it much...I know ferrets are picky...so there really is
no way to make them eat what they don't want without practically starving
them, huh?  It's just that I just made a batch that should last two
weeks...and she barely ate half of what i gave her!!  But anyway, any
recipes would be helpful!!
 
Question 2:
I also have the problem of Mika not using her litter box at all...and she
poops in practically every corner of her cage!!  I've tried putting some
feces and used litter in her litter box to show her and try to train
her...and she has pooped once or twice...but then she has the tendency of
digging her litter out and either making a fort out of her litter box by
flipping it over, or sleeping in it with the litter completely outside of
it (i find this cute and funny, but I would really like to litter train
her!!)...now she's spread to instead of one corner..then two...now she's
at three corners of waste!!  Unfortunately I couldn't aff ord a bigger
cage, so she has a one-story until I make enough money to get her a
multiple story one (heehee understand that I'm a struggling college
student)... so is there any way to litter train her??  I use CareFresh
litter for her, and it does not do a thing to the smell...is there any
scoopable litter that can be u sed?  I know cat litter usually causes
respiratory problems...but it'd be so much easier to scoop the poop like
you can for cats...well..once she's litter trained...
 
Any suggestions would be great!!!  Feel free to just email me!  Thanks
so much!!
 
~Mika's mami
 
[Moderator's note: Can't very well e-mail an anonymous poster -- I can
forward responses in needed.  BIG]
[Posted in FML issue 4893]