Hi Caroline! My name is Carrie and I have four Hagen ferrets. Shawnee is a rescue, she's 4 yrs old and a silver. Slinky is 3 1/2 yrs old and a silver. Vixen is 3 yrs old and a sable mitt. Chewy is 1 yr old and a siamese blaze (I think). I'm no ferret expert or anything and telling the colors is hard for me. I have pix at http://members.tripod.com/~cduc/photoalbum/index.html just click on next after each page. I'm responding because of your Hagen query. All of mine were fine, except Vixen. I bought her at a local pet shop when she was 6 weeks old. All my ferrets were fixed and descented. At about 6 months of age, Vixen started acting funny. She's a real Mama's girl and is very attentive to me. When I call her, she always comes to me. All of a sudden this stopped. She was sleeping a lot and one day while I was cleaning her cage, just as I brought the cleaned cage into the room and was putting in the litter, she jumped into the non-litter area, where the blanket wasn't down yet, and peed. There was blood in the urine, so I looked at her vulva and saw it was very enlarged. Needless to say, I freaked!!! Luckily, I'd bought a Ferret book prior to ever buying a Ferret (and had read it)! I knew that a heat was dangerous to a female ferret who wasn't bred. So I called my Vet immediately. My Vet gave her a shot, as she was in heat, and said that when she was well, we'd have to reoperate. I was fuming and called the Pet Shop immediately. They were out of business! So, I found her adoption papers and among them was a certificate from Hagen that she'd had an ovario-hysterectomy. I called Hagen and was put in touch with their vet, Dr. Bauck. She was very helpful, right from the start. She took my information and contacted her bosses with it. They agreed that if Vixen were operated and any reproductive material was found, they'd repay me for the surgery. A whole ovary was left in Vixen! I had to go to Hagen's Vet for the surgery, in my area though. After the surgery, a Hagen rep, picked up the ovary that the Vet had kept for them and they took it to their lab. They repaid me for the surgery. On that score, Hagen stood by their word. Problem is that if I hadn't known how dangerous it was for Vixen to be in heat, I might have ignored it figuring it would pass. Most animals can go through a heat without being bred with no danger to their lives. Also, when you buy a "fixed" ferret, the Pet Shop doesn't even think to warn you about this because the animal is supposed to be "fixed". I could have lost Vixen easily, right then! If I purchased Vixen at 6 weeks of age, at what age was she operated on? How big can an ovary of a 4-5 week old ferret be? It must be really easy to miss! Why not sell them later or wait to operate and sell them at a lower cost? This has been my question since that 2 week period from Hell where my Vixen's life hung in the balance! If you need any other information just let me know. I still have all of the bills and any written communications that I had from the Vet and Hagen. Vixen saw two separate Vet's at first and both confirmed she had been in heat. Please keep in touch with me as I am really interested in all of this! NB: If a person has a Hagen ferret and it needs to be re-ovario-hysterectomied, or whatever, check with Hagen before every move, otherwise you'll lose out financially. When we brought Vixen home I needed a new cage to isolate her while her surgery about 3 1/2 " long on her abdomen (it took up her entire underside just about). I purchased the extra cage at a Pet Shop and asked Hagen to reimburse me for it and they said no. They said that if I needed a cage, I could have asked them and they'd have provided one for free. I only thought of it on the way home from the Vet with Vixen after her surgery! I had other things on my mind and wasn't thinking clearly then. So, besides the cost of surgery, ask Hagen prior to purchasing any pet supplies. Hope this is of help! Carrie and the furbrats at [log in to unmask] [Posted in FML issue 2675]