New from Texas

[emntl]

Hi all! I'm Emily and I live in Texas. I am new to ferrets but have all kinds of critters. I plan to feed raw as soon as I actually get ferrets. I have been looking high and low but most adoption places want a home visit or local adopter and there are NO ferret shelters or animal shelters with ferrets in my area. I have looked everywhere. I ordered all of the supplies, now I just need to find some ferrets! *Canadian ferrets sound really interesting to me...
Emily

[1]

Welcome to the forum I happen to have a friend from Texas also. He is the only visitor I have on my chat box, I don't know why he isn't on this forum, although he is on one already. Maby 1 is all he wants right now. Also he has a forum but both our web sites are in the vacuum of the Internet. I can tell you who caused it but thats sort of personal. How active I am hear is random, and I have many friends onbourd, hope you will to . Every one hear is wonderful and super. Holistic is means as natural as possible for nature its salf and on those grounds theirs no hypocrisy! Alot of people have life stalk for feeding to their ferrets including mice, rats, gerbils (that actually don't breed, go figure) guineas, ducks, rabbits, hamsters (which are surprisingly slow for a colony rodent) and what ever they think they can breed.
The most popular diet is raw because ferrets are designed to digest better if its not cooked. We have a mentoring program, we have a staff members den, I love teasing the always on duty guard ferret (only staff members are aloud in) and this forum is friendly enough to let people who want to be members stay, and spam is almost inexistent . Also, we love pictures. I even have a picture in my signecher, and you would never guess which one in the picture is me! Sorry if this post is over dose. PS. I'm Aaron.

[sunnyberra]

It can be difficult. I got three of mine as kits from a local petstore (still Marshall's farm ferts), and my latest addition was a Craig's List ad/adoption thing (have you tried that? or that ebay based trade service kijjijji or whatever? I know some have gotten theirs that way, as well).

But anyway, congrats on all the preparation and welcome to the forum!

[sherrylynne]

Welcome to the forum Glad to see you doing research on these little monkeys before getting one! They certainly are "out of the norm" when it comes to pets
One of the advantages of a home visit from a shelter is they can point up where some ferret proofing needs to be done! We had one when we were fostering, and even though I had ferrets already, it came in handy

[Heather]

Hi and welcome on board
You're after RC fuzzes....are you prepared for the challenge They can be a handful though as adults they're absolute marshmallows Right now I have two....Yuri and Captain Jack. I still think that the PV ferrets (excluding breeder's ferrets) are the biggest challenge that I've ever had here. Sometimes, marshals (as much as I'm annoyed with the farm) their ferrets have to be the best ferrets to start with. I believe we actually have a thread somewhere in here where we compared the difference between the various farm ferrets.
I have to agree with sherrylynne the visits though invasive are only for the good of the ferrets being placed. I've done one every time I've placed a ferret. These little ones have already had some very scary places to live, we're particularly protective for where they go next. You've no idea how heartbreaking it is to "loose" a ferret because the ferretproofing missed a certain aspect. We know their capabilities and sometimes new "ferrants" are not aware as to their ingenuity and ability to make trouble where you're absolutely positive there isn't any Each new furkid that comes here opens spaces in my ferretproofing and I have to rethink my space. These visits are not meant to offend believe me. There are more than a few of us here know what it's like to hold the still lifeless body of a ferret that was brimming with life not minutes before. Accidents or death by "misadventure" is second only to disease as a major killer
Good luck on your search and don't be shy about asking questions .
ciao

[rarnold18]

Hi and Welcome to the group! I know it's hard to deal with all of the rules and regs. that rescues have for their potential adopters but it really is what's best for the fuzz, the rescue's priority is to give the fuzz to a safe, stable, furever home. I didn't qualify for my local rescue because I have small children and they will not adopt to a family that has children that is under 5 I think...

[emntl]

Well I'm fine with home visits it's just that most places aren't going to fly or drive out to where I live... the closest rescue I know of is in OKC, Ok which is a 5 hr drive at least. But, something will happen..

[sherrylynne]

Talk to them. You might be able to work something out with them.

[Heather]

I have people that I trust do home visits in areas that I can't get to.
ciao

[bluemoose]

Welcome to the forum!

I would definitely look on Craigslist if you want to rescue/rehome. So, so many people get ferrets without doing any research first and once they discover that ferrets are a lot of work, expensive, "stink" (although this is usually the owner's fault), bite, poop a lot, ect. they rehome. I see ferrets being rehomed on CL all the time.

Also, if you haven't already, I would recommend reading Ferrets for Dummies, 2nd Edition by Kim Schilling. Easily one of the best books written on ferret care. And if you have any questions, feel free to ask them here. Everyone is friendly and helpful and no question is considered silly.

[chrylis]

I just adopted my first ferret from the Texas Ferret Rescue in Balch Springs (east side of Dallas). They wanted to go over what I was getting into with me but did not require a home visit or any such. What part of Texas do you live in?