If you are interested in adding a ferret to your household, there are several places you can turn. You can purchase a ferret from a pet store, from a breeder, or from an existing owner, such as through a newspaper. Or you can choose to adopt a ferret from your local shelter. There are benefits and drawbacks to each of these options. At FURRY Ferret Shelter, we hope that you will at least consider adoption before making your final decision.

This page will give you a brief introduction to the procedures for adoption at FURRY Ferret Shelter. If you are interested in seeing some of the ferrets available for adoption, please see the Adoptable Ferrets Page.

Before you can take a ferret home from the FURRY Ferret Shelter, you must go through our standard application procedure. This procedure is not a quick, simple process. We hope that any applicant interested in adoption will understand our thorough process. The ferrets in our care have been given up once in their lifetime, and we do all that we can to make sure it never happens again. Our approval process consists of three main steps:

• Application: All interested parties must fill out an adoption application. This will help us to learn some basic information about the applicant. Click here for our application.
• Telephone Interview: Once your application has been received and reviewed, we require a telephone interview. At this stage of the approval process, we try to learn more about your knowledge and experience with ferrets, any prior ferret ownership history, and about your home and lifestyle so that we can determine if there may be a good match for you at the shelter.
• Shelter Visit(s): Each applicant is required to make at least one visit to the shelter before he or she may take a ferret home. The first visit serves as a formal interview. After this interview, the applicant may be invited to meet some of the ferrets available for adoption. Applicants are encouraged to bring their ferrets, if any, to the shelter during a shelter visit to observe the interaction between the ferrets (all original ferrets must be up-to-date on vaccinations and ADV negative within the last six months). On your final visit to the shelter, assuming that you have been approved for adoption, you will be able to take your new furry friend(s) home with you after signing all paperwork and paying your adoption fee.

What is required of me?

While we will consider applications from all interested parties, the FURRY does have some requirements of adoption which must be met before you are permitted to adopt. The FURRY does not have a standard checklist of what makes the "ideal" home for a ferret, or "ideal" adoptive "parents." Each ferret is different, and has different needs. Therefore, the only real "rule" of ferret adoption from the FURRY is that you must be approved through our adoption application procedure. There are some restrictions on who we will adopt to, however. If you have any questions about these restrictions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

*** You must own, and have read or promise to read "Ferrets for Dummies". ***

We will not adopt a ferret to anyone who:

• Is under 21 years of age. We will, however, consider the application of a parent of a person under this age.
• Does not have a good understanding of the needs of ferrets and the responsibility required for good ownership. We will be happy to help educate any applicant who wishes to become more knowledgeable, and we do welcome applicants to volunteer at the shelter for a period of time while learning more about ferrets.
• Does not have the means to provide appropriate food, medical care, and attention to a ferret. (Note: we do not ask of applicants any questions regarding income of financial status. We do, however, provide information about the likely costs to be incurred and ask that applicants think seriously whether they will be able to bear this financial burden throughout the life of the ferret.)
• Wishes to adopt a ferret for any reason other than to be a cherished family pet. Ferrets adopted may not be used for any working purpose, such as hunting, nor will we adopt ferrets to be used as classroom pets, petting zoo animals, etc.
• Is not willing to comply with all requirements presented in our adoption contract. If you would like to review a copy of our adoption contract, please contact the FURRY shelter.

Once a ferret is adopted from the FURRY, we expect that the relationship between adoptive party and the shelter will be ongoing. We ask for occasional updates, and we reserve the right to contact adoptive parties for follow-up purposes. This allows us not only to keep track of the ferrets that we have placed, but also to provide an ongoing resource for the ferret owner to ask questions and continually learn more about ferrets.

The FURRY Ferret Shelter does charge an adoption fee for any ferrets adopted from our facilities. The fee may vary depending on the age, temperament, health, and special circumstances of the ferret. This fee is used to help defray the high cost of caring for and maintaining the health of ferrets residing in the Rescue. All fees are posted with the available ferrets we have listed on Petfinder.com.

A word about adoption fees: FURRY Ferret Shelter makes absolutely no profit off of adoption fees. In fact, we have to employ some other means of fundraising to remain open. The members and volunteers out there are pouring their hearts out for these little fuzzies in need, but at the same time they also pour out their bank accounts. A standard adoption wouldn't even cover the expense that the shelter director spent in the first week that the ferret came to the shelter. Food, cage, litter, and especially medical care (no ferret gets by without, at the minimum, a vet check and distemper vaccine) really adds up when a shelter has 20-40 or more residents. This does not even take into consideration the number of ill, elderly, and abused ferrets that become permanent residents of the shelter (see Sponsor a Ferret). If you are considering adopting a ferret from FURRY, or if you simply believe in the work that we shelter directors do, consider donating a little time through volunteering, becoming a member, or making a donation. Every little bit helps, and the ferrets will love you for it.