Dr. Mike of PETsMART is out of the office the rest of the week, but I'm
sure will respond when he returns.  In the meantime, here is some info I
know.
 
Krista writes
>I visited Petsmart yesterday for some food and noticed their ferret
>'habitat' was complete with kits.  These guys are so incredibly tiny I
>have never, never seen a kit that young.
 
Estimating age by size is tricky.  Females can be a lot smaller than
males, and kits from a large litter may be smaller than kits from a small
litter.  This is not to say these kits may not have been too young, just
that size alone is not an accurate indication.
 
>tons of artificial lighting
 
The lights are supposed to be turned off at night, and the store should
be dark.  They also should have a cube hammock to retreat to for darkness
(at least in the "new" habitats).
 
>I finally asked, so who is your breeder, and she says, Petsmart buys
>from vet-approved breeders.
 
They use their own breeders, not any of the large farms we are familiar
with.
 
>Also, does anyone have a way of telling exactly how old they are??  By
>their teeth??
 
You can tell if they are under 7 or over 8 weeks old by whether their
canines have erupted.  If the canines are tiny sharp needles, they are
under 7.  If conical canines, over 8.  There is more on when other teeth
erupt, but the canines are easy for most people to tell the difference.
 
If you let Dr. Mike know where this store is, I'm sure he'll look
into it.
 
Linda Iroff
International Ferret Congress
http://www.ferretcongress.org
[Posted in FML issue 4876]