Tag Archives: mill

So, 2 years ago I purchased a ferret from a locally owned petstore I had no idea there were “ferret mills” at the time. I purchased him with a “guarantee” that if he died within a year of my purchasing him, they would refund me. Of course i never thought he would die. So, i got him and owned him for about 2-3 months. I later looked up Marshall ferrets and was unhappy realizing he was from a mill, i didn’t mean to support it but it was too late. I loved him and we had a lot of fun together.

Then I went to visit my parents, 3 hrs away. We got to their house very late at night and I observed him drinking water. I then put him in his cage and went to sleep. I slept late from the drive, till 2pm, when i woke up, all his water was spilled out of the cage and he was laying at the bottom of the cage….dead. My mom said she had heard him scraping a lot, but he was always hyper like that so no one thought anything of it. It was absolutely devastating.

I figured out that he went a maximum of 10 hours without water (if he spilled it immediately when going in the cage). I called the petstore and they said i had to bring them the body to be autopsied for a refund, i was way to upset to bring his body 3 hours away, i instead gave him a proper burial.

Many people have told me that MArshall ferrets often die young because of inbreeding etc. Still, I always worry he dehydrated. I am wondering if that is possible in that time period? I sort of wish I got an autopsy but I was way too devastated to consider it. Since then i have had one ferret, he lived a happy life, but passed away due to a seizure from undiagnosed cancer. I guess ferrets are to delicate for me. Insight on why my first one died would be nice though. Thanks.