Howdy Raymond:
>1) I was about to purchase my fuzzie at a local petstore (PJ's pets in
>... On a health basis, should these ferrets be avoided:
> 1) About 9 weeks old, spayed/neutered and descented. Is this too early?
> Problems I can expect due to it?
There is some debate about whether spaying/neutering at such an early age
may be harmful. Some think that disrupting the ferret's hormone balance when
it is still in its formative months may cause problems. For example some say
it may stunt their growth. But there's no hard data that I know of.
I generally prefer to err on the side of caution, which is why one of the
reasons I bought my last ferret, Sammy (at a pet store) was that he was
*not* yet neutered. On the other hand, I bought Cassie in October '92 (at
PJ's Pets in Edmonton as a matter of fact; I was on vacation with my first
ferret Bud, who sadly just passed away a few weeks ago). Cassie was already
neutered and descented, but she was so adorable, I just basically forgot
that I had intended to avoid pet stores for that very reason (DUH!). I felt
guilty about it after buying her, but I wouldn't give her up now for the
world. Aside from passing a little blood in her stool for a few days when
she was a baby (which the vet attributed to stress, though one might also
suspect problems associated with her descenting) she hasn't been sick a day
in her life, and is almost 3.5 years old now. This doesn't rule out future
problems of course. She has also been a healthy 2 to 2.5 pounds all her
adult life.
I'm sure some will tell you to avoid pet stores like the plague (or maybe
like the mean greenies, green slime disease, ECE, whatever you call it :)
but I thought I'd share my experience.
>P.S. Is there any association of ferret owners in Edmonton or Alberta even?
>If for nothing more than the odd ferret frolic..
I heard from someone who's starting a club in Calgary, but I'm not sure
it's proper netiquette to give out people's email addresses without their
permission. How about I let her know you're looking?
I also think there may be some other List members in Edmonton, and there
certainly are in Alberta.
--
John Rosloot, Caregiver to Cassidy and Sammy
With loving memories of my dear departed Buddy
Technical analyst, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Regina
Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
http://www.cs.uregina.ca/~john/ferrets.html
[log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 1446]
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