To the person wondering about removing the teeth from their ferret:
Yikes!  I would definitely classify this under Bad Idea (tm).
I have never heard of this, but certainly can't imagine it being a widely
done practice.  One of our five, Casper (a 3 year old silver female), has
had her front claws removed.  I picked her up from a newspaper add when she
was a year old from a person who had "inherited" her from her ex-boyfriend
and didn't want the undesired responsibility.  Her previous owner had her
declawed.  I heard that this is poular because a lot of people don't like
the scratchy ferret claws on their arms, wrists, etc.  I think that this is
a very unneccesary operation.  As has been demonstrated on this list,
ferrets do climb.  That's how they get around a lot of the time, and having
no claws is a definite handicap.  Casper has learned to make up for this by
leaping, but she still can't get to all the places her 4 friends can.
 
And on the subject of apartments:
Several people have said that ferrets are ok in a lot of situations because
apartments may allow "caged" animals.  Well, my finace and I lived together
in a dorm on campus for a year with 4 ferrets.  We had to pay a deposit, but
it was ok, because the dorm allowed "caged" animals.  Imagine our surprise
when we returned this year with 5, and were told that ferrets were no longer
considered a "caged" animal and were now in the same class of pets as cats
and dogs, which are NOT allowed in the dorms.  Part of me felt good because
of this recognition of ferrets as being equal in pet status to our feline
and canine friends, but mostly I felt bad about not being allowed to keep
our babies with us.  We tried having the 5 stay with my folks, but that only
lasted a short while (they already live with two cats, two dogs, and one
teenager!).  So we ended up having to just sneak them in and not tell
anybody.  Believe me, it is not fun trying to hide the oder of 5 ferrets in
a small dormroom!
 
-Matt Newsome
 
Laura (girlfriend)-  "What are you typing on my computer?"
Casper- "I see my name!  What did you write about me?"
Fritz-  "Name?  What's a name?  Do we have names?"
Naisi-  "Sure we do.  I know mine!  I'm a good boy!"
Avalon-  "Yes, you're so special...  I MUST DESTROY YOU NOW!!!  AIEEE!"
Jasper-  "Sigh...  honestly, I live with cretins."
[Posted in FML issue 1788]