well i have something to say about marshall farms and petco. and i know alot of you aren't going to like what i say that is why this is going to be annonymous. i bought my fuzzy at a petco owned pet store last year. he is a marshall farms ferret. i thought about getting a shelter ferret however they were either old, sick, mean, and not any of them were neutered/ spayed or decented. vets in our area charge around 80 dollars for a cat to be fixed and about 150 for a ferret. that does not include decenting. i bouth my ferret who is a miniature for 85 dollars. he has been the most loving, gentle, and yet playful animal i have ever met. he is the light of my life. i plan on buying yet another ferret from the same pet store in about a month. there are some petstores that are great with their animals. another reason i got him was because he was fixed, decented and had his first shots. i love ferrets and i couldn't afford to get a shelter animal and i didn't have the time to spend to teach one not to bite, destroy things or attack people. i also did not want an animal that was sick and to think that i'd loose it anyday because of a disease it had. i had an animal pass on me and i needed something else to share my love with me. he's not a (replacement) nothing could ever replace my other animals. however, he is filling a somewhat empty spot in my heart. i know that alot of the people on here say that you should always get shelter animals which is good if you've had shelter pets before. this is my first fuzzy. i wouldn't have known what to do with one from a shelter if it got sick or if i had to get it fixed or decented and it developed a disease. i think that petstores are a good place to get your first fuzzy. i do however believe that if you know how to handle fuzzies and you have others that yes getting a shelter animal may be for you but not for the novice. if a novice gets a somewhat "rotten feisty" animal that bites hard and destroys things they will think that is the behavior that ALL ferrets have which is not true. this will also prompt them to take them back to the shelter and say forget it and think that all ferrets are mean little creatures that should be put to sleep. if you've never had a fuzzy get one from a pet store take it to the vet and have a check up done on it. if you have had fuzzies get them from a shelter and still take it to the vet. there may be alot of people out there that think oh a neet animal i'm going to get one from the pet store, abuse it, and then they take it to a shelter or let it run free. it's not the animals fault it is the humans. however i must say that there are good and bad petstores. and as far as i'm concerned marshall farms is doing a good job it's the individual stores and the people who work there that are bad. not the breeder. my fuzzy came from a good store with people who take very good care of all the pets. everything is very clean and they do not take returns on things that have been used. if there is a piece of fur anywhere on anything they refuse return of it for fear of disease transmission. then there is another store about 50 miles from where i live that sells ferrets. they get theirs from marshall farms. but they let people play with them and touch them. they are in an open cage. this pet store has very sick animals that sneeze and have diahrreah. again this is the pet store not the breeder. just watch where you get your pets from. make sure that it is something you want. and check on all the bad info as well as the good about the animal. if you have expensive persion rugs through your house and you couldn't bare the thought of one getting a digging whole in it, then a ferret or a puppy is not for you. make sure you know what you are getting into. and always make sure you will have enough money to pay for vet bills when they occur. if you can't afford EVERYTHING that comes with a pet then consider a gold fish in a bowl. [DB] [Posted in FML issue 2906]