>From:    Jacqui Duff-Turner <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: intro
>I'm new to FML and have been reading avidly for two weeks.  It is great to
>know there are so many other people who care for ferrets out there.
>Especially now I've seen a couple from people who spell colour like me.
>(Shiela & Kaye can I mail you direct re pet ferrets in Southern England?).
>Are there any more UK based FMLers?
 
Hi there.....yep,feel free....but I should warn you we're (hopefully) moving
in a week or so,so will be off-line for a couple of days.I should also point
out that Sheila and I are both from the frozen north,but on opposite
sides....she's in red rose country and I'm over t'border in Yorkshire.Jane
Odell's nearer to you though...you there Jane?
 
>... I feed my two Ferret Complete, I guess that is the British equivalent
>of US Ferret food, but at 35.00 [UK] a bag seems to be about half the price
>but still not cheap.
 
I feed that too as a staple but also feed on raw whole chicken or rabbit
carcasses (I have a source of whole minced chicken),sardines and eggy bready
milk as occasional treats.I've not tried the new stuff Sheila was telling us
about,but she says it's brill........and she's got a lorra,lorra ferrets,so
I guess she knows her stuff!:-)She can advise you better on weaning than I
can too..........mine are boys!
 
>Can you get this Pedialyte stuff in UK?  if so, what is it called?  the idea
>of freezing something good for the ferrets appeals to me as their favourite
>treat is a little ice-cream in the summer.
 
I'm sure you can,but I can't remember if it goes by the same name or is the
same as "Dioralite" and "Rehydrat"for kids.That comes as a powder which you
mix in with water to form a fruity flavour drink.Mine hate,loathe and detest
it.I think they'd rather suffer than drink it.
 
>PS On the Goldfish issue I think it is unnecessarily cruel to heat up
>goldfish to make them sluggish and easy for the fuzzies to catch in a
>confined space, but let's not forget that wild carnivores eat raw meat!
>not just sanitised dry stuff in a bag.  (I feed that because it makes it
>acceptable to me as a veggie and they seem to eat it with relish.) Wild
>mustelids will also take raw egg (mine like this but prefer it scrambled!)
>and anything else they like the smell of.  Banana and orange (including the
>peel) are favourites in our family but not exactly commonly available to
>native British wildlife!  I think the smell of the food is just as
>important to fuzzies as it is to people.
 
Just my 2#.........I use my ferrets for rabbiting,but to me this goldfish
thing seems a bit like a "rat in a trap" idea.One of the fieldsports rules
is that you don't use a trapped animal as quarry (e.g.  bagged foxes) as
they don't have a sporting chance of escape.This is something that
non-fieldsports people find very difficult to understand (IMHO),but we DO
have a conscience and try to treat the quarry animal as fairly as possible.
We don't go ferreting when there are young rabbit kits present in the
burrows etc.You may think this is all one and the same thing,but personally
I think we have an ethical way of going about our sport.  Anyway,that's why
the goldfish idea rankles a bit with me....they have no chance of escape
and are not even being eaten as food.I am NOT flaming anyone here coz it's
a free country (so I believe) but I wouldn't do it myself.
 
K.
 
PS.If anyone's interested,the British Field Sports Society has been
rechristened the "Countryside Alliance" and has a new website on
http://www.countryside-alliance.org/ where you can look up info about
ferreting as a fieldsport,amongst other things.
[Posted in FML issue 2326]