UPDATE: On November 7, 2007, I adopted one more fuzzie. She was given to a shelter and the shelter called my Vet to see if a home could be found for her in a week. I took Minx in for her yearly shots and was told about the homeless fuzzie. When they hadn't found a home for her after several days, I adopted her. She didn't have a name so I named her Sage (X-Men character). She is a big girl, easily bigger than Minx. She has lighter coloring like Tank and a mask like Frankie. She has a blue dot in her ear indicating she is from Marshall's Farm.
Meet Sage:
The way her mask is on her face, her "eyebrows" always look like they are furrowed in concern and gives her a constant worried look. Isn't she a cutie?
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UPDATE: On March 23, 2007, I adopted two more little ones! Originally I was to have adopted one so Turd and Frankie could have a new friend. When I went to check her out, her owner informed me she couldn't afford to keep the boy and I was welcome to adopt him as well since I seemed to know so much about ferrets. I renamed the girl from Havok to Minx and the boy from Buddy to Tank.
Meet Minx:
Minx is a total hyper, frisky ferret. She loves to pounce on anything that moves. On her last check-up, she weighed in at 1 lb 11 oz.
And her friend Tank:
Tank is a big ol' fatty ferret. Him and Turd are now the best of friends, and they love to snuggle and scamper together. Tank weighed in at 2 lb 6 oz.
Minx and Tank had their birthday on April 9th, and they turned a year old.
This is Frankie:
Isn't she cute? She is a total princess. She expects YOU to LIFT her out of the cage as she is above climbing out herself. She weighed in at 1 lb 8 oz, still my littlest one.
This is her brother Lil' Shit, we call him Turd for short:
He recently weighed in at 2 lb 8 oz, the largest of the bunch.
They live in a posh 4 story cage in my room. Ground level is where the bathroom is located. Just up the first ramp you come to their kitchen where they have some lovely blue food bowls and a nice watter bottles. Continuing up the ramp we come to their bed, a zebra print fleece hammock. Up on the next level, the attic, they have a box stuffed with old sheets, for use as a fort or hideout, and a simple hammock for them to lounge in. On top of their cage, accessible only from climbing up the outside of their cage, is a rooftop igloo.
Turd and Frankie are brother and sister and were born sometime during the first week of October, 2004, and I adopted them the last weekend of November, 2004. For their 1 year check-up, Turd weighed in at 2 pounds, and Frankie was about half that at just over 1 pound.
They love to tunnel and dig. I have a couple of plastic tunnels on the floor that they love to run back and forth in. They also have a strange fascination with shoes. Should I want to lure them out from under the bed I need only put a pair of shoes next to it and out they will scamper into the shoes.
Their main sustenance is ferret food (or in a pinch kitten food that is high in protein), although Turd will eat almost anything (he loves ice cream, prunes, apples, chocolate, Vitamin Water, and sour skittles). Tank's appetite is almost as undiscriminating as Turd's, and Minx loves most treats and Vitamin Water. Frankie will only eat her ferret food and the ferret-vite I occasionally give them as a treat.
Farm breed ferrets are the most typical ferrets in the US. Because of some inbreeding at this farm, some ferrets only live only 6-8 years and can have a wide variety of health issues. Those that are privately breed (usually Canadian or European descendant ferrets) are usually healthier and live much longer. Since Turd and Frankie were not from a ferret farm (ferrets are marked with a blue dot on the inside of thier ear if they are) they are expected to live to be about 8 to 10 years old. Sage, Tank and Minx are from Marshall's (the largest ferret farm in the U.S.) but are very healthy, and large for being farm ferrets.
I love my little guys!