Something that's gotten me rather worried after reading through various FLS
and posts on the ferret newsgroup is the suprisingly large number of people
who have bred ferrets but don't seem to know much about them. (I will not
name names --- this is not a flame, but more of an assay on things.) One
person wrote on the newsgroup that he/she fed dogfood to the ferrets he/she
had bred, and now they had spinal deformalities, immune deficiency
conditions, and other terrible things. Several others asked questions about
their sick/unhealthy ferrets that showed their ignorance because these
problems caused by things that every ferret owner should know about *before*
buying a pet, e.g., spaying a female before she goes into heat, NOT feeding
them dogfood/wet catfood (entirely), declawing... yet they too remark that
they are planning to breed ferrets in the near future as a hobby!
Please, please --- leave the breeding to those dedicated enough to make a
serious effort of this, not a "hobby". Breeding any kind of animal is no
joke --- my family has bred ponies and other animals for three generations,
and you wouldn't believe how difficult/complex and how much work and
attention MUST go into this if you want to do it well. Unless you are
willing to spend the time, effort, and money (yes, and lots of it) to learn
as much as possible and gather as much resources (material and non) as you
can BEFORE you even THINK of buying ferrets for breeding purposes, please
don't do it. Ignorance untended is a crime, not an excuse.
Sincerely,
Anna G. Ralya
You may know that my husband and I have stated on the FML a desire to breed
ferrets in the future --- but that is the quite distant future, when and IF
my husband and I have acquired the knowledge and resources to responsibly
breed ferrets, and our dedication goes so far as to my serious debate on
whether or not to go to medical school or veterinary school, since it looks
like I'll be spending most of my time with various beasts of the earth and
air anyway.
[Posted in FML issue 1537]
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