Linda Iroff writes: >Unfortunately, education does not work. You are Dead Wrong here. If you plug away at something, things do get changed. But yes, they take time and sometimes alot of time. It take time to print off flyers, distribute them and get them to use them. But it DOES work. I and a couple of my ferret friends have educated people at our local Petco (employees) about ferrets, their needs and their draw backs. What good foods to feed, cheaper litter so that people can afford the better foods, I have dropped off Good flyers there explaining the issues ferrets develop. What good treats to offer, what are not so good treats etc. They are doing a wonderful job at our Local Petco. The only thing I see they need to improve is the cages they offer. They are HORRIBLE for ferrets. And again, I am working on that problem. We got another local pet store to stop carrying ferrets, because they did not have the proper set up. They agreed to push rescue ferrets and have asked us to help with that. We in turn suggest to people who adopt from us to shop there. In high amounts, Ferretvite or Nutri cal could be bad. I know of people who are giving it like a treat everyday. High amounts of it. But to remove it would not be good because it is need. There again, education is the key. It is not the "Fast" answer to the problem. The people who will not listen will find another place to get Yoggies, or Raisins etc. You can't get the food stores to remove raisins. I tell people NO RAISINS WHAT SO EVER. I tell them 1 raisin to a ferret, is like 300 to us. Are you going to sit down and eat 300 raisins? They are shocked. But they listen. If I had a $1.00 for everytime they said they did not know that, I would be able to fund my shelter no problem. If they don't get the Yoggies in the ferret section, they will get them in the cat, dog or small animal section. Or worse yet, take there business to another local petstore who has not removed that item. It is hard to go about the problem that way. I think having the pet stores maybe add tags at to what is a healthy treat for the ferret, like they do with the Heart Healthy stuff, might be a better option. I would like to see the Ferret Food companies lower their prices also. Because it is for "Exotic Pets" they raise the price of the foods. I always suggest a cat food to feed to ferrets, because I know in the long run people are not going to feed the expensive foods. If push comes to shove and they have to buy food for their families or buy food for their pets, the pets are going to get the cheap stuff. So I suggest all price range foods, which I have checked out labels for to give them many options. But once again, that is education of the owner. With the high percentages of ferrets getting sick (about 89%), people need to know that going into ferret ownership. You can say processed foods are not good either. Feed raw/live diet. That is what alot of people in Europe do and their numbers are way down on issues of getting sick. But this would require alot more work and mess and it is so much easier getting the kibble. When I write my letter, I am going to suggest a Manger training session on ferrets. Train the mangers, have the managers train their employees. Revise their Care sheets and make sure to mention the high health issues that ferrets can have. Have photos shown to the managers of an adrenal ferret. Have them have access to more in depth flyers about the diseases. But also state that despite their high issues of illnesses that they are WONDERFUL pets who provide hours and hours of comic relief! Marguerite TinyPrints On The Heart..... TinyPrints Shih Tzu, TinyPrints Ferretry and Rescue http://www.tinyprintsontheheart.com Ebay Sales to Benefit TinyPrints Ferret Rescue Medical Fund http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZalohaferrets TinyPrints Ferret Rescue PetFinder Web Page http://www.tinyprintsontheheart.petfinder.org TinyPrints Ferret Rescue Store http://www.tinyprintsontheheart.com/onlinestore.htm [Posted in FML issue 4874]