I'm sorry Nancy, but I'm going to have to disagree with you about some of your arguments against ferret farms (i.e. Marshall Farms whence my baby came). I would concur that if at all possible I would get a ferret from a breeder (I wanted a really young one, so a shelter probably would not have worked), simply because as a general rule going straight to the source is always better than using a middle man (pet store), as you can see the conditions in which the animal was raised for its first few weeks *and* meet the parents (an important indicator of health problems/personality). However, in my area (east central Illinois) breeders were having problems getting their females into heat, let alone pregnant, so I gave up and went with the local pet stores. I am a vet student, so I asked a *lot* of questions, suspicious myself of an animal from a large operation. Here's what I found out. My biggest concern was how in the world do you spay a baby ferret? The answer -- the ovaries/uterus are *so* tiny that a small probe is inserted, and they are `zapped' (I'm not sure whether by laser or electricity). This procedure is *much* less invasive than traditional spaying and therefore safer and less traumatic (although admittedly animals seem to have little trouble recovering within hours from a spay/neuter (especially neuter). I do not know about the neuter, but as I have worked for vets and know that this is a relatively minor procedure even in older dogs (the only point of concern is that the older the dog, the larger the arteries/veins that need to be cut -- in a very young animal, this causes little concern. As far as stunting their growth, I would agree that especially a male neutered young would tend to grow to a smaller size. But this is NOT because there is a severe impact of neutering/spaying on development. If I remember my reproductive science correctly, it is because the testosterone feeds back on growth hormone. More testosterone=more growth hormone=bigger ferret. The reason, then, that there is a bigger effect in males is because they produce far more testosterone than females (who *do* produce some) and if you take out the major source of testosterone early, there's obviously less feedback to make more growth hormone. But this has *no* effect on the development of any other system/organ in the body -- the smaller size is *not* an indication of poor health/development. Lastly, I have seen many ferrets in many pet stores, and I'm not sure I have ever seen them less than 8 weeks of age (which is weaning time anyway, right?). However, I may have seen some 6-week-olds in N.C. once, and I agree that this is wrong. I do believe, though, that Marshall Farms is in the habit of shipping at 8 weeks -- I got Trella the day she arrived from there, and she was 8 weeks old. Okay, I'm finished now. I'm not trying to show off or be overly correcting, it's just I didn't want a bunch of people up at arms over the farms' supposed cruel treatment of our favourite pets without knowing more of the facts. I will agree that there are reasons to be suspicious of them (depending on what their production rate and living arrangements are), but I feel that some of the ones that Nancy mentioned were unjustified (no offense :-) ). Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!! Laura L'Heureux and Trella, too U. of Illinois VM96 [log in to unmask] [Posted in FML issue 0366]