Hi everyone! I'm Angie & have been married for 16 years (tomorrow by the way!!!). Dh & I have 5 kids (3 boys, 1 girl, 1 boy) ages 11, 7, 6, 4, 1. I also homeschool. We live in New York state about 45 minutes from Buffalo. We are also in the process of adopting a sibling group from a local agency in our area. We are in the stage of meeting with the adoption specialist & are praying for the good Lord to bring the children He has picked out for us to us! It is very exciting! My only hobby is feeding the wild birds & other wildlife as I am totally in love with animals of all sorts!!! We have 2 large breed dogs (adopted from SPCA), 4 indoor cats (rescued stray & adopted from 2nd chance shelter), 1 lop-eared house bunny (rescued from someone's garage after the novelty of Easter bunny wore off), about 8 or so fish & aquatic frog, and just recently one beautiful sable ferret we adopted from the SPCA on Tuesday!!! He is a neutered male about 1 year old. He was found/abandoned & brought to the SPCA. We FINALLY decided to name him Rosco! Rosco loves our cats, but the cats don't quite feel the same, LOL! He also absolutely loves the dogs, but they don't enjoy his nips & biting. I'm in the process of trying to nip train him by using the "scruff" method & saying no and when appropriate, timeouts. The rabbit of course is NOT fond of Rosco, I'm not sure what Rosco thinks of him either! They are always kept away from each other...only one or the other is allowed out of their cages at a time! Rosco isn't litter pan trained (YET!) I did buy a ferret starter cage kit from Petsmart which is a 2-tier black wire cage & has a spring-locked door on each level. It came with a water bottle using the 2 balls in it, a bowl (which I'll need to get one to anchor onto the cage since he keeps tipping this light plastic one over), a hammock, a bag of Kaytee Forti-Diet for ferrets, & a bag of corn cob litter for the litter pan. I bought a litter pan that has a high back & fits into the corner but also has a square space enterence for him to back into. He only uses it when I put him in it, otherwise he'll go right next to it. I've recently tried laying a blanket on the floor around it to deter him from going on the bedding, but he still does. I'll keep working with him! The supervisor at the SPCA told me to also get Kaytee's Fiesta Mix & mix it with TOTALLY FERRET (50/50) but I've been combining it with the Forti-Diet & he is doing well. The only thing is there seems to be so much fruit in the Fiesta Mix & I believe it is giving him runny, wet stools so I've been picking some of the fruit out to save for treats in the future. His first vet's visit is Saturday. Any advice on what to ask? The SPCA did NOT give any vaccines & I've discovered there is quite a bit of conteversouy on whether to get them or not since they could have reactions....PLEASE help me to decide if I should get the distemper or the rabies or what I should do. I love Rosco so much already & don't want anything to happen to him. I've always wanted a ferret since I was a teenager (LONG, LONG time ago, LOL) but dh just never wanted to go there. Well, I've been researching a lot over the last couple months & calling to check at the SPCA for when they had a ferret for adoption & they finally had one this week. So I asked dh if this could be my anniversary present & between that and the kids, he finally agreed! I feel like there is still lots to learn as I'm not experienced yet, but I've been reading several different website articles & visiting some message boards. We all love him so much already....he is such a cool ferret. I look forward to getting to know all of you & I eagerly welcome anyone's advice & recommendations as a new ferret owner. Thanks & God bless, Angie [log in to unmask] western New York, zone 5 National Wildlife Federation Backyard Wildlife Habitat #30089 [Posted in FML issue 3855]