Post by Deleted on Oct 25, 2013 10:03:41 GMT -5
I was recently asked to share which rescue I was working with and how they are doing their classes. The Educated Ferret is a rescue located in central Massachusetts. They are a formally registerred not-for-profit organization with a President, Vice President, Treasurer, etc...
The director I worked with is named Donna Spirito and she busts her tail for these ferrets. I have to give her HUGE Kudos!!! Please visit the website (http://www.theeducatedferret.net/) for more information. On the calendar page, you can see that she has multiple classes she teaches at the local petco.
For my husband and I, she had us read literature to prepare us, and asked us to come with a list of questions. She then had us come to her home (A.K.A. the rescue) so she could give us hands on experience. When we arrived, she walked us through the habitat (consisting of cages, playpens, and ferret rooms). She showed us safe items and not safe items (she has a bunch of items that came in with surrendered ferrets which are not ferret safe, so good demo items).
Most importantly, she had us hang with the ferrets and talked to us about behavior. With 24 in residence right now (and she named them all - no need to look anyone up), she was able to show us every different color combination. Then she went over health and we met deaf ferrets, waardy ferrets, insulinoma, adrenal, black heads on the tail, etc.
She had us each clip nails and she demonstrated ear cleaning and dental care. I'm sure she would have had us do the ear cleaning and dental care but neither of us could seem to master scruffing. Plus, the ferrets were returning from foster care that day (she had gone on vacation for a week) and due to being in travel crates, none of them wanted to sit still for us. I couldn't blame them though.
She did talk to us about food and water although she suspected the food talk wouldn't be what we needed for too long since she is aware of us planning to go raw. So she'll send us home with a bag of kibble which hopefully will be the only bag we need to transition the babies to raw.
But back to the rescue. The website gives you a good picture of how Donna does what she does. She is very diligent in the education of ferret parents and I bet she'd be happy to talk to anyone who has questions about what she does and how she does it.
You can also visit them on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/educatedferret.shelter
The director I worked with is named Donna Spirito and she busts her tail for these ferrets. I have to give her HUGE Kudos!!! Please visit the website (http://www.theeducatedferret.net/) for more information. On the calendar page, you can see that she has multiple classes she teaches at the local petco.
For my husband and I, she had us read literature to prepare us, and asked us to come with a list of questions. She then had us come to her home (A.K.A. the rescue) so she could give us hands on experience. When we arrived, she walked us through the habitat (consisting of cages, playpens, and ferret rooms). She showed us safe items and not safe items (she has a bunch of items that came in with surrendered ferrets which are not ferret safe, so good demo items).
Most importantly, she had us hang with the ferrets and talked to us about behavior. With 24 in residence right now (and she named them all - no need to look anyone up), she was able to show us every different color combination. Then she went over health and we met deaf ferrets, waardy ferrets, insulinoma, adrenal, black heads on the tail, etc.
She had us each clip nails and she demonstrated ear cleaning and dental care. I'm sure she would have had us do the ear cleaning and dental care but neither of us could seem to master scruffing. Plus, the ferrets were returning from foster care that day (she had gone on vacation for a week) and due to being in travel crates, none of them wanted to sit still for us. I couldn't blame them though.
She did talk to us about food and water although she suspected the food talk wouldn't be what we needed for too long since she is aware of us planning to go raw. So she'll send us home with a bag of kibble which hopefully will be the only bag we need to transition the babies to raw.
But back to the rescue. The website gives you a good picture of how Donna does what she does. She is very diligent in the education of ferret parents and I bet she'd be happy to talk to anyone who has questions about what she does and how she does it.
You can also visit them on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/educatedferret.shelter
