First of all, since I've been lurking, let me introduce myself. I'm the very proud mommy of the sweetest 8 fuzzbutts in the world! :-) I'm also mom to 1 full grown ferret-loving (and so far, kitten-hating) cat and 3 new rescued kittens who haven't figured out why these funny looking "cats" kiss 'em to death. Needless to say, if I see a pet store, my car pulls in. :-) It's been my experience with the Petsmarts in Houston (I frequently visit 3 different Petsmarts here) that they are far from educated about ferrets. While they do have a good selection of products, I have found rodent chew toys and other non-ferrety items (some very dangerous to ferts) stocked in the midst of ferret supplies. I've specifically asked about pelleted newspaper litter and the employees (including manager) looked at me like I didn't know what I was talking about. They've also not been willing to special order products for me. However, I also frequent 2 different Petco stores here. Because there are ferret owners working at both of these particular Petco's, I've found them to be very educated. One of the Petco's even keeps their ferrets in cages and allows people free access to pet the fuzzies, as opposed to that horrible octogon shaped enclosure that everyone hates. While they don't have the best selection, they have always been willing to special order whatever I request. And while prices may be a little higher than Petsmarts, they have FANTASTIC clearance sales (ok, I just bought over $150 worth of animal supplies and pelleted litter and spent less than $25 for it...I'm prejudiced :-) !) I think the key point here, however, is the knowledge of the individual employees and the policies of the individual store managers. If the employees of a store are ferret-knowledgeable, then you're going to have better luck. Mary Reeves, her 8 fuzzies, 1 ferret wannabe, and the 3 kittens [Posted in FML issue 2321]