Oooh, looky what i got!

[Mephibosheth1]

As soon as they make ferrets legal in Cali my family is getting 2 or 3. My dad loves them, my mom loves them, and my brother is nuts over them. Ther take the best qualities if cats, dogs, an rodents and put them in one animal. Long Live Ferrets!!!!!

[SSALB]

The only time he is a calm, well behaved little guy..

[Anya]

As soon as they make ferrets legal in Cali my family is getting 2 or 3. My dad loves them, my mom loves them, and my brother is nuts over them. Ther take the best qualities if cats, dogs, an rodents and put them in one animal. Long Live Ferrets!!!!!

Are there plans in the works for making ferrets legal here?

As far as I knew, it was never going to happen, especially since there's an enormous feral population in some places.

Do you have special ferret insider info? (Genuinely curious!)

[Konotashi]

There is a huge movement in Cali trying to get them legalized. Honestly, it makes no sense for them to be illegal.

Ferrets are domesticated animals. They are nothing like their wild counterparts - polecats or black footed ferrets. I'm not sure where you got the information about wild colonies? (Maybe black footed ferrets?) Black footed ferrets are a separate species of ferret and not the same kind of animal that we keep as pets. They are highly aggressive and are actually the most endangered mammal in North America, due to farmers poisoning their only food source (prairie dogs) in early settlement times. Wipe out the bottom of the food chain, you wipe out everything behind it that doesn't adapt - which was the black footed ferret.

Every ferret that is available at Petco is spayed/neutered before being sent out, so there is zero risk of them breeding wild populations of ferrets and taking over the ecosystem.

Domesticated ferrets would not be able to survive in the wild. Our domesticated ferrets have to be taught to eat meat, for the most part. Within the first 7-8 months, ferrets imprint on what is or is not food. After that window, it is VERY difficult to get them to eat anything else. When I was switching my ferrets onto a raw diet, I had no issues switching my 9 week old Cooper to raw meat. Given his young age, he ate whatever I put in front of him. Alice, on the other hand, was about two years old when I switched her, and it took me MONTHS to get her to eat it on her own. (This is why they have the forum I mentioned earlier set up - given the difficulty of switching ferrets). I had to spoon/force feed her daily, for every meal, and she acted like it was poison and pretended I was hellbent on killing her with this stuff.
Ferrets WILL starve themselves to death if they don't like what food they're given. It's not necessarily because they're picky - it's because they don't recognize it as food. Even if you just switch the kibble brand.

[MrLang]

Ferrets are so fantastic. Congrats.

I miss our little Mr Gus.

[Mephibosheth1]

I don't think there are plans for legalizing ferrets (they'll legalize weed, but not ferrets......O_o)

The main concern I think is that they will turn into the rodent counterpart I the feral cat (or even the domesticated free range cat).

Oh well...guess ill have to move to Arizona or something....

[Konotashi]

As far as the actual legalization process goes - no, I don't think there are any plans to legalize them anytime soon. But there is a movement pushing in attempts to make them legal there. California is the only state in the continental US where they're illegal....

The thing about feral cats and rodents is that they can adapt to wild instincts and food sources and hunt for themselves and LIVE to be feral - basically live to be wild animals. Ferrets cannot adapt in that way. People who write the laws will not believe that information, though. They know nothing about animals....

Ferrets are so fantastic. Congrats.

I miss our little Mr Gus.

My first tattoo is a series of memorial paw prints. One of the paw prints is for my ferret that passed away last year (Tesla). I lost him to juvenile lymphoma before his third birthday.
Alice was his best friend and she grieved heavily after his passing. Just out of curiosity, I showed her my tattoo to see what she'd do. (Honesty, I wasn't expecting much). She glanced at it for a split second, but when she saw Tesla's paw print, she stopped for several seconds (which is a lot for a ferret) and sniffed it tenderly.

[satomi325]

Congrats on the new fuz! They're awesome. I have a couple myself and just rehomed a foster.

And good on you for going with a raw diet. Not many people are open to it. Your ferret will thank you when it doesn't get Insulinoma.

Check out the raw/whole prey diet appreciation thread.

Satomi is an excellent source of ferret info!

Thanks for the rec!

As soon as they make ferrets legal in Cali my family is getting 2 or 3. My dad loves them, my mom loves them, and my brother is nuts over them. Ther take the best qualities if cats, dogs, an rodents and put them in one animal. Long Live Ferrets!!!!!

California has the highest population of domestic ferrets in the US. The irony huh?
Check out West Coast Ferrets. They're a rescue based in Sac. Or Northern California Ferret Alliance in the Bay. Could PM me for more details.

There is a huge movement in Cali trying to get them legalized. Honestly, it makes no sense for them to be illegal.
.

Agreed fully.

The reason CA bans them is due to being an 'invasive predator'. They already know they are domestic animals, but spew garbage about ferrets destroying the native ecosystem and killing poultry and native species blablabla.

The legalization movement is large, but petty. Ferrets Anonymous( the legalization group) is headed by a man who is doing everything wrong and is very close minded. He is still stuck on the thought that ferrets cannot eat anything but kibble and will never kill their own food. That is one of his main arguments when fighting legislation and is totally wrong. He needs to understand that ferrets are harmless, but can still kill and eat meat.

He would rather badger Fish and Game than educate. Education is their biggest tool, but FA doesn't utilize it.
They also have a 'scientific' Environment Impact Report regarding ferrets in CA, but its really bad. I read it and there is no real scientific data supporting that ferrets will not wreck havoc on the environment. I know ferrets won't, but there is no true source in their document. Just speculation and unrelated case studies, which is why the government doesn't take them seriously.

Both the government and legalization group are ignorant and uneducated.

Overall, I've just given up on ferret legalization. No one cares except Fish and Game themselves. The cops don't care. Heck, most cops(and people in general in CA) don't even know ferrets are illegal. Vets don't care. It is in fact legal for vets to treat ferrets in CA. And there is a reason why CA has the highest population of ferrets in the country. Heh. Half a million and counting.

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[Konotashi]

Oh, ferrets can definitely kill.

When Cooper was a wee one, I put a f/t small rat in with him to see what he'd do with it, as I intend on giving him live mice on occasion for enrichment. The reason I started with a f/t was to see what he'd do. A lot of ferrets will torture their prey to death, and if I were to give him a live one, I want it do be killed quickly and not suffer.

He sniffed it for a few seconds, LATCHED onto the skull and started thrashing it around. He crunched the head so hard, the skull busted and an eyeball popped out of the socket.

A lot of people try to say that raw fed ferrets are aggressive. I made this video to argue with that fact. Cooper is a pretty big boy. (He's a little over 3 lbs, which is fairly large for a pet store ferret). He gives me kisses and cuddles. Not to mention, you will NEVER see a kibble fed ferret get this amped up for dinner!

[satomi325]

I agree. Mine haven't changed their behavior towards me because of their food. They are more food/prey driven, but not aggressive. The whole group are cuddle bugs.

Compared to cats, ferrets mean business when it comes to live prey. In my personal experience, I haven't seen a ferret play with/torture their food. Feed a reasonable size prey and its a one hit kill. They latch on behind the neck and break it. Mine start crunching on the face after the prey is dead. A whole prey fed ferret's food drive is insane compared to the kibble eaters. But I suppose if you fed an adult jumbo rat, it would be agonizing if an inexperienced ferret has no idea how to dispatch it.

Shameless advertisement for the Raw/Whole Prey diet appreciation thread: http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?t=194468

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