Hi all! I've been an observer of FML for about a week now and I am very impressed. I was directed to FML after I lost my adored fuzzie Maddie to insulinoma. I have recieved a lot of very helpful information about this disease and I thank all thoughs who helped me. However now I need to ask for some advise. I live in Westchester county in NY and ferrets are very popular pets. What I am not sure of is it okay to buy a fuzzie from a pet store or am I better off getting one from a breeder? My vet says that it doesn't matter but I'm not so sure. My reasoning is that I may get a fuzzie with better genetics at a breeder then at a pet store. I'm deathly afraid of losing anymore babies to this desease or really any other desease and any advise would be appreciated. Another matter that I could use some information on is longevity. My vet told me that ferrets generally only live for about 6 years before they begin to develop all the problems that I've read about in the FML. Does this sound right?? It sounds pretty bad when my vet says that the odds of problems developing are very high. Now just so you folks don't think that I'm all bad news, I want to say that my two year old sable female Nikki is doing great! At first she missed her "sister" terribly, but with intense romping with mom and dad she's doing much better. And hopefully with the advise of everyone on the pet store topic she'll be getting another sib in a couple of weeks. Thank you for your help! Jaya, Ang and Nikki [Posted in FML issue 1339]