Kit TOO YOUNG TO SELL!

Question
I just bought a baby ferret from Scamp's and she looks A LOT younger then 7 weeks old, she cant even eat hard food yet, and doesn't have all her teeth.Also, her eye has puss or something hardening and keeping her right eye shut.
What I would like to know is, how could I tell for sure how old she is and what and why i her eye doing this?

Answer
Hi Alicia:

We quite often hear reports of ferrets who appear to be far too  young to be away from their mothers being shipped to pet stores. Sometimes they live and sometimes they don't.  If you have one at your home, the best thing you can do is make sure she has something thick and soft like a sweatshirt that she can snuggle down into for warmth; soften her dry food with warm water and let it soak for a little bit before she can eat it - BUT beware, this is dangerous because once it sits for about two hours it will begin to spoil, so it needs to be changed often, replacing it with fresh (a very small amount each time) kibble with warm water over it.

The only way to *definitely* put an exact age on the ferret is to take it to a ferret-savvy vet and let him examine her teeth closely.  IF you do this and he confirms that the ferret is less than seven weeks old, you have a legitimate complaint against the breeder.  The problem arises when the breeders have young ferrets that are approximately the same ages in together and they get shipped together - their ages shouldn't vary by much, but I know I have seen some that I would *swear* could not possibly be old enough to be away from their mothers yet!  

It is very frustrating, especially when we see them on the pet store end of their journey when they are struggling to eat food that they cannot eat and they get prolapsed rectums from eating dry food before their little systems are not ready to (that's why you need to keep feeding WET FOOD for a couple more weeks just to be sure; dry food will really stress their digestive tract & cause prolapsed rectum, which can become a chronic lifelong problem if the dry food problem isn't moistened before damage is done to the intestines).  IF her little rectum is already puffed out, you can dab a little bit or Preparation H on it a couple times a day to help the swelling go down - hopefully it will heal quickly, especially since you got her out of there. God help the other little ones who are still in the pet stores who weren't as lucky as your little girl :-(*  

Unfortunately, our hands are pretty well tied - I would encourage you to locate the breeder's contact information online and even email them your concerns as soon as possible. It would be interesting to see what they tell you - or if they even reply to your concerns.  Best of luck - the problem is a big, very very sad one indeed.

Sincerely,

Jacquie Rodgers