Canadian Ferrets vs. Marshall Ferrets

[jenclarke23]

Hello Group! Another curious question for all you ferret enthusiasts! ;D

I was at Pets Unlimited a couple of weeks ago (for the last time after reading all about the neglect in other posts on the board) and I saw one ferret. Being curious I asked one of the staff if I could look at him. They opened up the cage and out bounded this massive (not fat just massive) exhuberent ferret. I was told that he was only 2 months old and that he was a ferret from a canadian breeder (not sure which exact breeder). I asked what the difference was b/t marshall ferrets and this ferret and the girl told me that Canadian ferrets were 'less removed from the wild' and that they were very aggressive and harder to tame. They said they would never be ordering any more ferrets from the Canadian breeder because of this...can anyone confirm or deny any of this?

I am sure that my two boys are marshall ferrets and I'm pretty sure the girls are too even thoguh they don't have the two ear tattoos and the main difference I can see is size. All of my ferrets are pretty small with the execption of Rupert who is a bit bigger...but even Rupert is probably half the size of the Canadian ferret. Can anyone explain the differences as I thought you could only purchase marshall ferrets in the petstores around St. John's.
Thanks!
Jen

[airy]

hi Jen.

I have heard about these Canadian ferrets before(I think it was Wikipedia where there was mention of them) and I heard the exact same thing you mentioned about size and aggression. I think the place is called Canadian Farms but I am not certain about it..I tried searching for their website a while back because I wanted to see what one looked like but I had no luck finding a website for the place. I think it is kind of funny that they will not put a website up..Oh I also heard that Canadian ferrets are way more expensive than the ferrets from other breeders. As for identifying them they have a strange looking tattoo on their ear, it might be lines or something weird like that but I don't remember now, Marshall's ferrets have 2 dots for their tattoos. If your girls don't have tattoos there could be a chance that they are Path Valley ferrets, Path Valley is another major supplier of ferrets and they ship their ferrets to petstores in Canada. My Pandora and Loki are Path Valley ferrets. The pet store had recently told me that they stopped dealing with PV because the last few batches were arriving with aggression issues and other problems, although I never had any of these problems with my path Valley ferrets. I did manage to find a Canadian ferret on You tube, but the resolution was bad and didn't really get a good look at it.

[mindy]

i have a real canadian ferret, my mr. fred besides being monster-sized he is the greatest ferret ever! he is calm, he loves all other ferrets, he loves other people, he is just great! he can get a little too worked up and bite sometimes but he doesn't ever bite hard enough to break the skin. george was fred's cagemate and also a real canadian ferret. george, on the other hand, was a lot more "wild" than fred. george would get worked up VERY easily. he actually scared me sometimes when he was that worked up, he bit. he was also very aggressive with my other ferret. the problem with george though, i think, all comes down to lack of socialization and training. (the lack of training is actually the problem with fred and the litter box too i think...) my lack of experience didn't help me with george and due to him always beating up on fawkes, he was re-homed with someone who was much more ferret-experienced with more dominant ferrets.

[jenclarke23]

Well the ferret I saw didn't seem aggressive with me but I could see how his big size might make it easier for him to accidently hurt a smaller ferret. He was absolutly adorable though and If I hadn't already had smaller ferrets I would have considered him. He reminded me of one of thos big breed puppies that you get with the giant feet and it takes them years to grow into them. Thanks for the answers girls!

[mindy]

i have a 3.5 lb monster and a teeny-tiny little girlie and they get along perfectly

please excuse my face in the picture. it was the first night we had ginny and i was really excited to have her

[airy]

Hey Mindy, Mr.Fred wouldn't happen to be one of those ferrets in your avatar?? Those are very cute ferrets by the way I think you done the right thing regarding George, must of been really hard for you to have to rehome him but I guess it is better than taking the chance of your other ferrets getting hurt by him.

Jen, that ferret sounded precious, I totally get what you mean, about the big puppies with the oversized paws, I think I would of been considering him too if I seen him

[airy]

Aug 3, 2009 14:32:00 GMT -4 mindy said:

i have a 3.5 lb monster and a teeny-tiny little girlie and they get along perfectly

please excuse my face in the picture. it was the first night we had ginny and i was really excited to have her

OMG!!! Thats amazing about the size difference, I thought Loki looked like a monster compared to my girls but wow!! That is seriously the biggest ferret I have ever seen, but he is utterly gorgeous.

[mindy]

yes, that is fred and ginny in my avatar. it was just the cutest thing, fred was laying there with his nose pushed up against the floor - piggy nose!! - and ginny was laying on top of him that was soon after we first got ginny.

it was really hard to re-home george. it was an extremely hard decision but seeing fawkes turn into a different ferret was really hard too. my poor little guy was so out going and silly but he got so nervous and skittish when george was around. george is in a new home now and is really happy there, so i have heard.

i think that fred is beautiful too! i love cinnamon sables. fred reminds me of an old man somehow. he is just the most laid back dude ever

[Tressie]

As Mindy said, George ended up being adopted by a woman who had moved here from England and brought her ferrets with her. One of them, Weasel was a hybrid mix between a domestic ferret and an honest to goodness European polecat, which is what domestic ferrets are thought to come from.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Polecat

In England they practice ferreting, that is, breeding ferrets for hunting and some of the breeders capture wild polecats and breed them with domestic ferrets. And that was Weasel!

Weasel was HUGE, perfectly proportioned but HUGE. Bigger than either Fred or George. Most intelligent eyes I've ever seen in a ferret, spooky intelligent. Anyway having a ferret that was literally half wild gave Kim tons of experience with more feral-like ferrets. Weasel and George ended up bonding. Weasel passed away this past spring.

Real Canadian Ferrets is a breeder out of Manitoba. The ferrets are much larger physically than Marshall's ferrets. Most don't have the gentle temperament Fred has but are more like George. FRSO had a lot of surrenders turned into them when their pet stores started carrying Real Canadian Ferrets a few years ago and so they know a lot about them and gave us a lot of help and guidance with George.

The breeder doesn't socialize them either the way Marshall's ferrets are socialized. Marshall's ferrets have highschool students come in and handle the kits on a regular basis. Real Canadian Ferrets breeder doesn't do any of that.

ALL Marshall's ferrets have ear tattoos. So do Real Canadian ferrets but the RCF tattoo is an I. They tend to be late maturers and retain their kit-like behaviours, including nipping/biting, harder to litter train, etc. until around 2 years of age so the training period is longer for them. Hence their reputation for bitiness.

They are also exceptionally intelligent and get bored more easily and therefore, require a more stimulating environment. Roughhousing is NOT recommended with an RCF unless you want to lose a finger or two. I expect that they've retained their hunting instincts as well, whereas, with Marshall's some do, some don't.

Those who choose RCFs as kits either surrender them early because they can't handle them or enjoy the challenge they present.

I think if I had no other ferrets but all the experience of having had ferrets I might take on an RCF. As I said from the accounts of other RCF owners, Fred is an exception. Mindy's lucky to have him, he's got a wonderful temperament and the majestic size of the breed.

Tressie

[mindy]

i am thankful everyday that i was lucky enough to get a ferret like fred. he was the perfect friend for my little guy, fawkes, and now he is a great buddy for ginny. i love fred SO much!

[purpleferret]

I don't know about yu, but I think those ferrets are mighty lucky to have Mindy as a Mom too!

[mindy]

awwww, thank you Marian

[petkeeper]

Hi

I had 2 hagen ferrets one was awesome and one would attack you for no reason. I believe the breeders who breed for hagen also breed for real canadian ferrets. I know my hagen ferrets weren't any healthier than Marshall ferrets. I know PU in SJ used to carry the hagen but won't carry them anymore due to their temperment.

[cody n christina]

is Marshall ferrets the smallest breed of ferrets?
I seen Canidian ferrets and they are HUDGE! compared to Rickey n Baby(Marshalls ferrets) are PV ferrets big to?

[Tressie]

Marshall's ferret do vary quite a bit in size. I have seen some pretty big Marshall's boys.

I dropped off a cage to a woman a few weeks ago who had a female Real Canadian ferret and I was surprized at how small she was, so even RC ferrets can be small.

Tressie

[cody n christina]

oh, the RC ferrets i seent at the pet story where hudge..

[motherof2]

My boy is a Canadian ferret and he is the sweetest boy ever! Not a mean bone in his body. He is big but not overly big. My girl Annie is a path valley ferret which she was a little nasty at first but now she comes for cuddles and kisses.