>Thank you for any help you may give New Ferret_Mom in Arkansas
 
Annie,
 
OutlawDook said it well.  PLEASE get those ferrets altered!  A ferret in
breeding condition has sex on the mind, not playing and being lovable with
your three children.  With your lack of experience with ferrets, you should
not risk this.  What will happen if Bandit is trying to mate with one of
your female ferrets and accidently grabs one of your children and then you
have to pry his mouth open to release him from your child?  You don't need
animals that are driven by sexual urgency.  You want socially acceptable
animals, sweet animals, playful animals, ALTERED animals.  (And it may take
Bandit several months to mellow out even after he has been neutered.)
 
Do you know what aplastic anemia is?  Female ferrets in breeding condition
will come into season and will need to be taken out of season by breeding
with a whole male, a vascetomized male, or drugs.  If she is left in
season, she may die from aplastic anemia.  Did you know that most breeders
keep their hobs out of their main living area?  Hobs in season STINK!  And
the females in season won't smell so nice either.
 
Breeding should be left to responsible individuals who breed for certain
traits and temperment.  Breeding is not something that should occur between
animals just because they aren't fixed!  This is one reason why there are
millions of cats and dogs that are euthanized every year in this country.
Please don't add ferrets to that list.
 
CAUTION: graphic details!  I have been owned by altered pet ferrets for
over 11 years.  I have also been around breeding ferrets.  I am still
haunted to this day of the mental image of a mother ferret at a ferret
"shelter" who ate the entire abdominal area of one of her 6 week old kits.
The baby looked like it was just sleeping in the cage.  I picked it up and
found all of its abdomen gone!  I can also picture the image of several
other mothers at the same place who developed gangarene mastitis and either
died or needed emergency care to live (and most of the babies died).  These
are the realities of breeding ferrets when you don't know what you are
doing.
 
Which brings me to my next point:
 
>I have even seen request for donations to well known ferret shelters,
>where the donor could and should make independent inquiries to other
>FML'ers in the area.
 
Bravo Dick! If I may paraphrase; Just because it quacks like a duck, it
doesn't mean it *is* a duck!
 
        -Carla
[Posted in FML issue 2736]