well i have something to say about marshall farms and petco. and i know
alot of you aren't going to like what i say that is why this is going to
be annonymous.
 
i bought my fuzzy at a petco owned pet store last year.  he is a marshall
farms ferret.  i thought about getting a shelter ferret however they were
either old, sick, mean, and not any of them were neutered/ spayed or
decented.  vets in our area charge around 80 dollars for a cat to be fixed
and about 150 for a ferret.  that does not include decenting.  i bouth my
ferret who is a miniature for 85 dollars.  he has been the most loving,
gentle, and yet playful animal i have ever met.  he is the light of my
life.  i plan on buying yet another ferret from the same pet store in
about a month.  there are some petstores that are great with their animals.
another reason i got him was because he was fixed, decented and had his
first shots.  i love ferrets and i couldn't afford to get a shelter animal
and i didn't have the time to spend to teach one not to bite, destroy
things or attack people.  i also did not want an animal that was sick and
to think that i'd loose it anyday because of a disease it had.  i had an
animal pass on me and i needed something else to share my love with me.
he's not a (replacement) nothing could ever replace my other animals.
however, he is filling a somewhat empty spot in my heart.  i know that alot
of the people on here say that you should always get shelter animals which
is good if you've had shelter pets before.  this is my first fuzzy.  i
wouldn't have known what to do with one from a shelter if it got sick or if
i had to get it fixed or decented and it developed a disease.  i think that
petstores are a good place to get your first fuzzy.  i do however believe
that if you know how to handle fuzzies and you have others that yes getting
a shelter animal may be for you but not for the novice.  if a novice gets a
somewhat "rotten feisty" animal that bites hard and destroys things they
will think that is the behavior that ALL ferrets have which is not true.
this will also prompt them to take them back to the shelter and say forget
it and think that all ferrets are mean little creatures that should be put
to sleep.
 
if you've never had a fuzzy get one from a pet store take it to the vet
and have a check up done on it.  if you have had fuzzies get them from a
shelter and still take it to the vet.
 
there may be alot of people out there that think oh a neet animal i'm going
to get one from the pet store, abuse it, and then they take it to a shelter
or let it run free.  it's not the animals fault it is the humans.  however
i must say that there are good and bad petstores.  and as far as i'm
concerned marshall farms is doing a good job it's the individual stores and
the people who work there that are bad.  not the breeder.  my fuzzy came
from a good store with people who take very good care of all the pets.
everything is very clean and they do not take returns on things that have
been used.  if there is a piece of fur anywhere on anything they refuse
return of it for fear of disease transmission.  then there is another store
about 50 miles from where i live that sells ferrets.  they get theirs from
marshall farms.  but they let people play with them and touch them.  they
are in an open cage.  this pet store has very sick animals that sneeze and
have diahrreah.  again this is the pet store not the breeder.
 
just watch where you get your pets from.  make sure that it is something
you want.  and check on all the bad info as well as the good about the
animal.  if you have expensive persion rugs through your house and you
couldn't bare the thought of one getting a digging whole in it, then a
ferret or a puppy is not for you.  make sure you know what you are getting
into.  and always make sure you will have enough money to pay for vet bills
when they occur.  if you can't afford EVERYTHING that comes with a pet then
consider a gold fish in a bowl.
 
[DB]
[Posted in FML issue 2906]