Getting free fleece is great - - that stuff is NOT cheap. What I'd suggest for 5" wide strips is toys. Most of those fleece mousies etc. are pretty simple shapes. I like to make them with "fingers" though so the ferrets have something easy to grab onto. You can use your hand as a pattern. Go to walmart and buy a little bag of bells and loose pillow stuffing batting. Put the batting and bells inside and voila! A ferret toy. As for Black footed ferrets being bred domestically well yes but I doubt for pets. I do know of a breeder who got two Asian polecats from the BFF program. They had been used to breed with the BFF's I believe and you could buy/adopt the retired ones, neutered I'm assuming. She said they weren't appropriate for pets because they were very easily spooked. Mary, Booker and the fuzzbutts [Posted in FML issue 2565]