Thanks for your reply Wolfy.  I wonder about the stress factor too.  I
would guess sure, its enough to cause intestinal problems..  but is it
bad enough to cause severe problems such as tumors?
 
I totally understand cats and dogs are different than ferrets.  But... I
volunteer with a rescue group who fosters cats and dogs.  We pull them
from shelters and foster them in our homes.  So I see them go from home
to shelter to home to home.  Sure they get some stress from all the
'bouncing' around, but in the end, they are doing great.  They dont end
up with the diseases and tumors that I have seen in my adopted ferrets.
WHY?  I just dont get it.  I am racking my brains and cant figure it out.
 
I know when the shelters get ferrets turned in, they dont get alot of
info from the previous owners, if any.  I dont mean that as the shelter's
fault... I mean it as the ferrets are just dumped there sometimes.
 
When I got my first 2 store kits, I have to admit, I didnt know too
much about ferrets.  I learned as I went along, but always gave them
vet-recommended kibble, exercise, playtime... But they never had received
the 14 hr recommended darkness...but they didnt develope the tumors and
cancers that my adopted ones had got so early in life.  Thats why I'm
thinking its got to be something that happens during their early
development, when people purchase them as kits.  Do they feed them junk?
Do they not excercise them?  Because Marshalls and others neuter them so
early?  What else could it be?  Health experts all the time say how much
that proper nutrition is needed for young children to develop properly.
Its just got to be the same with ferrets.
 
Maybe proper nutrition from their very beginning..  including being with
their mothers for a long enough period of time, is more important than
we imagine right now.  I know cats and dogs get tumors and cancers also,
but they dont at this young young age that I am seeing with ferrets.  I
believe its law (I'm not sure though), that puppies and kittens stay with
their mothers until 8 weeks, meaning they arent in the stores until they
are older than 8 weeks.
 
God, I just wish there would be a Marshalls and World wide experiment
with this.
 
Andrea
[Posted in FML issue 4805]