Hi everybody...
 
I thought I'd offer a little insight into the Pet Shop world for those
unfamiliar with how shops get their critters which they eventually offer for
sale..
 
Let's say I am a fairly mid-sized pet shop operator in a mid-sized town..  I
carry as wide a variety of pets as I can in my line with a few of the
exotics to act as teasers to get me more store traffic.  How do I get the
critters I offer?
 
I don't want too many of any one critter, a couple ferrets, a couple
hedgehogs, a sugar glider and a few reptiles [one of each one I decide on]
and so on to go with the tropical fish and the parakeets and so on.
 
To buy just two ferrets from an outfit like Marshall Farms or Path Valley
or any other major breeder will make the shipping costs as high as the
purchase price of the animal!  So I will buy from a person in the pet trade
known as a 'Jobber'.  This individual buys large quantities of any one
critter and then loads them in a van or small enclosed truck and hits the
road.  His/Her costs per critter are pretty low as so many are shipped in
the individual order and the small to medium range shops can then purchase
just one of two of any of my little zoo and the price stays half way
reasonable so they can double or triple that cost and make a profit.
 
Now this can be tough on any critter..  taken young from the Mother they are
bounced around in carriers and dragged out every stop on the sales route,
handled by a ton of strangers, exposed to stress and temp.  changes all the
time and many food changes and new water tastes every few miles or days.  If
the ferret kit is lucky it goes from Mommie to the jobber [one water/food
switch] and then very soon to the pet shop operator [another food/water
switch] and then to a new Mommie and Daddy [human this time with the last
food and water switch].  If not so lucky this can go on for days!!!  With
water switches and who knows what food changes constantly!
 
These baby ferrets are generally taken from the Mommie ferret as early as
possible so they are still real small and cute when they get offered to the
public in the pet trade.  There are several critters the pet trade won't
touch because they can't take the stress of all this change and switch stuff
and even with the best care and effort they commonly die while still in the
stores care or before.  You wouldn't believe the death rate of tropical fish
between catcher and store!!  So a ferret kit has to be one very hardy
critter to survive all this.
 
If you frequent a shop that only has one or two kits for sale at any given
time you can bet they buy from a traveling zoo known as a Jobber.  They pay
more than they would directly from the breeder and subsequently charge more.
This is one thing that drives the pet store price up over a hundred dollars..
sometimes as high as two hundred for young kits.
 
There is also the Jobbers Jobber..  that is a very large critter wholesaler
the traveling Jobbers buy from.  They are stationary and have large volumes
of many species in one place for the small Jobbers to come to and select
stock from..  This adds to the nightmare for these little ones.  And it
makes for frightened very tiny kits in overcrowded conditions that are often
not kept clean much less supplied with decent food and water.  This is a
very cold hard business with routine losses of some species running up to
50%.
 
All of us on the FML are blessed with an alternate to this kind of horror.
We can select our little ones from responsible small ferret breeders and/or
from ferret shelters.  There are several diseases/conditions that commonly
occur in young kits within a few months of their birth that can kill them.
And sadly some of these are brought on by radical changes in water and food
supplies complicated by stress.
 
Please encourage your friends, as well as yourselves, to post a 'I want a
New Fuzzy' letter here on the FML and make every effort to get your ferrets
from breeders directly or from shelters.  You deserve it and Heaven knows
the baby or needy fuzzys deserve it!  You will like yourself immensely and
you will have the fuzzy you want from a source you can trust...
 
So.. there it is..  FWIW..  IMHO..
 
dayna and the woozles of the MMOMM rescue/shelter
[Posted in FML issue 2131]