Dear Dave, I hope you will read everything before passing judgement, but we handle our small, farm raised and closely bred, early spayed/neutered and descented ferrets a little bit differently, and yet somewhat the same, over here in the United States. If anyone screams at you, understand that they do not have a good idea of the history or sport of ferreting, because that is ALL illegal over here. We can only keep them as pets or lab animals. >>Step 1. Wait till you get your ferret home and introuduce them to there new cub(hutch/kennel/run/court.) Wait 2 to 3 hours and then feed them.>> We keep our ferrets indoors and in cages here. Ferrets are free fed (a bowl of dry cat/ferret food is always available). >>Step 2. Make a tight fist of your hand and drop a spot of milk onto your foremost knuckles<< We don't use milk over here because it will cause the runs in these smaller ferrets. We use a liquid called Ferretone or Linatone which will work just as well... >>Step 3. You can now try a little mince meat instead of milk/spit,<< As I said earlier, we use dry foods - most ferrets over here won't touch meat scraps. >>Avoid adult ferrets like the plague,... Because nine time out of ten there's something wrong with it,anyway a good working (pet) ferret is worth a gold mine and nobody in his right mind would won't sell it. << #1 - your adult ferrets are usually unaltered. The agression level is higher and they are not really handled constantly as a family pet, but as a working animal. #2 - Here in the States, most adult ferrets are spayed/neutered and adults are BETTER to adopt than kits because they have already been trained not to bite and to use the litter box. Kits have to be trained and some people just don't do a very good job of it, but most times ferrets are given up inthe US beacuse people don't feel they have enough TIME. I posted this on the FML because all of our readers need to realize that what Dave has said may work for ferrets in Britian because that is how they are handled. Ask me how to approach a biting ferret and I use the fist/knuckle method myself. We can all learn cultural differences and the FML is a great learning tool. On the same note, when asking for advise (or offering it), don't be shocked if what you hear or say is way off base from what the person you are communicating with is thinking. Many considerations to climate, attitude, housing, food sources, laws, etc. can come to play. For example, like it or not, feral ferrets are at large in New Zealand. But that statement can not be allowed to stand by itself. THOUSANDS of ferrets were specifically bred and released to start "wild" colonies and the food source was right, polecats were released with the ferrets, and no one was allowed to hunt or kill a ferret for years after the release and there were no predators. Ferrets WON'T start feral colonies in the US because 90% are altered before sale, very few get loose and survive because we have too many predators (just look at the BFF releases...), and man won't tolerate another species running amok here. Anyway - Dave, welcome to the FML and you might get bored with us after awhile because we do handle our ferrets so much more differently than you all do overseas, but we can all learn from each other, just remember backgrounds and experiences vary, but that makes the world so much more interesting. Pam Grant, Director *Shelters That Adopt & Rescue Ferrets STAR* Ferrets PO Box 1714 Springfield, VA 22151-0714 [Posted in FML issue 1234]