[net.pets] Ferrets as pets

spangler@kvue.UUCP (Lance Spangler) (03/17/85)

Please forgive me if this has been posted before, but I'm interested
in finding out about obtaining a ferret as a household pet.  We presently
live in an apartment.
 
Cats are out since I'm highly allergic to them.  Oh, I should add
that we already have one unusual pet...a Central American Tarantula.  (She 
is quite friendly, and very low maintenance)

I am most concerned about (1) health & vaccinations (2) their digging/chewing
habits and (3) their odor.

Please mail responses to me directly and if there is enough interest, I will
summarize to the net.  


	UUCP:  ihnp4!ut-sally!kvue!spangler	Lance Spangler
	Telco: 512-459-1433 (Pvt. biz line) 	Senior Producer
	Telco: 512-346-4447 (Home / evenings)   KVUE Television
	                                        Austin, Texas
	       The only thing we have to	((P. O. Box 9927))
	       fear is computing itself! :-))     zip------> 78766

chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach) (03/21/85)

In article <158@kvue.UUCP> spangler@kvue.UUCP (Lance Spangler) writes:
>Please forgive me if this has been posted before, but I'm interested
>in finding out about obtaining a ferret as a household pet.  We presently
>live in an apartment.

I've known a couple of people who had ferrets as pets (an advantage of once
working for a vet-- you see everything, eventually...). Intersting
beasties, but I don't know that they would go well into an apartment. They
like to romp, in fact one of the ferrets I knew got walked like your
average every day dog. Assuming, of course, you like dogs that can rip
apart most small to medium sized mammals... *grin*

One thing to note about ferrets: many places, such as california, rate them
as an exotic species. This means that you need special permits from
everybody to keep it starting with the state fish and game, and ending up
with variances from the city on their pet requirements and leash laws--
getting all of these is non-trivial, and especially in the case of
something like a zoning variance or pet variance from the city, all you
need is a single idiotic neighbor to throw it in the works (I saw that
happen once with a racoon-- 7 months of paperwork, they had the bugger for
three months, and lost it to a single complaint by a neighbor, despite the
fact that 8 of the other 10 neighbors around them petitioned FOR it...
sigh... )

chuq
-- 
Chuq Von Rospach, National Semiconductor
{cbosgd,fortune,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!chuqui   nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA

Be seeing you!