Dear ferret lovers :) I have only been on this list for a little while but I have noticed some things and I just wanted to put my "two cents" in. I consider myself a pretty well informed ferret owner. I can talk intelligently on litter, food, ear and nail care, toys, cages, play time, biting, some ferret behavior and a good vet. I know a little about sicknesses but not too much about older ferrets never having owned one. My husband and I started our ferret ownership adventure in California and chose a ferret since they are "cool" and I am allergic to cats and dogs. Of course we got it by interesting means being in CA and didn't really have much in the way of training or help. The first thing that the little thing did was bite through my husbands finger! We kept that ferret (Taz) for less than a year and we were probably some of the worst ferret parents out there. She of course responded by being a horrid ferret. The people that we sold her to said that she followed her son around like a puppy. Go figure. Our second ferret we were a LITTLE better prepared for but we still didn't "get" a lot of the ferret behavior and while we were better parents to this one we endedup giving her to a wonderful ferret shelter when we moved overseas. The shelter owner ended up renaming her sweetness because she was so sweet (for him). Go figure. Meanwhile Sue is probably horrified that she sold three of her babies to us! Well, the love of ferrets stayed with us for years and this last summer we felt that we were ready to try again. I discovered in the pet store that I had developed ferret allergies and had handed them down to my five year old daughter but that didn't stop us. We re read all of our old ferret books, researched where to buy ferret stuff and found a breeder instead of going to the pet store. We talked to our daughter about ferrets and talked to the doctor about allergy medication etc. When we felt that we were ready we went to see Sue and got Pippin, a at that time a 12 week old male. Pippin decided to bite in that first week but we were ready and taught him not to. We had some trouble with allergies (especially me) but after trading around medications and purchasing 3 hepa filters that is under control. Of course ferret math being what it is we later got two more ferrets from Sue one at a time. I guess what I am trying to say is that ferrets aren't for everyone at every stage of their lives. We weren't mature enough or well informed enough the first time. The second time was better but not quite right. Now I feel confident that we will keep our little friends for life. Through it all we have loved ferrets and finally learned how to be good parents to them. Many other people are on this list because they love ferrets too. Some are brand new and know about as much as we knew in CA. Some know everything. We post with questions because we want to do the best thing, because we know that there are people here that know more than we do. And we post just because we have to tell how wonderful our ferrets are! I hope that we can all help each other and be understanding. Sorry this was so loooonnggg. ~Heather [Posted in FML issue 3712]