Something that's gotten me rather worried after reading through various FLS and posts on the ferret newsgroup is the suprisingly large number of people who have bred ferrets but don't seem to know much about them. (I will not name names --- this is not a flame, but more of an assay on things.) One person wrote on the newsgroup that he/she fed dogfood to the ferrets he/she had bred, and now they had spinal deformalities, immune deficiency conditions, and other terrible things. Several others asked questions about their sick/unhealthy ferrets that showed their ignorance because these problems caused by things that every ferret owner should know about *before* buying a pet, e.g., spaying a female before she goes into heat, NOT feeding them dogfood/wet catfood (entirely), declawing... yet they too remark that they are planning to breed ferrets in the near future as a hobby! Please, please --- leave the breeding to those dedicated enough to make a serious effort of this, not a "hobby". Breeding any kind of animal is no joke --- my family has bred ponies and other animals for three generations, and you wouldn't believe how difficult/complex and how much work and attention MUST go into this if you want to do it well. Unless you are willing to spend the time, effort, and money (yes, and lots of it) to learn as much as possible and gather as much resources (material and non) as you can BEFORE you even THINK of buying ferrets for breeding purposes, please don't do it. Ignorance untended is a crime, not an excuse. Sincerely, Anna G. Ralya You may know that my husband and I have stated on the FML a desire to breed ferrets in the future --- but that is the quite distant future, when and IF my husband and I have acquired the knowledge and resources to responsibly breed ferrets, and our dedication goes so far as to my serious debate on whether or not to go to medical school or veterinary school, since it looks like I'll be spending most of my time with various beasts of the earth and air anyway. [Posted in FML issue 1537]