Pit Stop Ferret Center

Adoption Update:
Devin and Styxx were adopted by a family together this weekend! It was wonderful to have them adopted together as they have really enjoyed playing together over the last few weeks with us 🥰

Ferrets ready for adoption:
Devin - 20 month male - sable
Styxx - 4 year old female - light sable
JoJo - 5 1/2 year old male - albino
Jinx - 3 year old female - sable

We have responded to all applicants at this time. If you don't have an email response from us, resubmit your application: https://www.pitstopferret.org/adoptions/AdoptionApplication

We do require landlord approval (or proof of homeownership), ferret vet identified, and photos of cage/play area.

All ferrets up-to-date on vaccinations and have received Deslorelin implant as preventative adrenal treatment. 100 each, or discount for multiples. Can go as singles or paired (Devin and Styxx or JoJo and Jinx).

Cages available for additional 50 fee. Ferret Nation or Prevue Feisty Ferret.

Located in Charlotte NC, will drive to meet approved adopters up to 1.5 hours from Charlotte.

Adoption Update: Figgy now has two new sisters, Maeve and Petals! This vocal trio hit it off at a meet and greet yesterday. Petals snuggled up with Figgy despite the sassy chirps she was giving 🥰

Happy National Ferret Day!

Enjoy your day with your fuzzbutts, and give them a little extra salmon oil to celebrate!

We are arranging a transport of ferrets from a rescue in a neighboring state. Please apply today to get pre-approved and your preferences considered while ferrets are selected.

https://www.pitstopferret.org/adoptions/AdoptionApplication

Thank you to our wonderful supporter, Vicky! We appreciate your donation!

We just updated our Chewy Wishlist. Take a look:
https://www.chewy.com/g/pit-stop-ferret-center_b102027675

Thank you Chewy for your continued support of shelters and rescues 🤎

Adopters:
We frequently see people asking for ferrets for free or "cheap".

Ferrets are not a low-cost pet. There are many expenses related to ferrets, if proper care is given.
- Medical - Annual vaccinations, and expensive illnesses. Adopters should have pet insurance or $1000 per ferret available for medical care.
- Food - Low cost options like Kaytee or Marshall's are no longer considered proper food. Raw or high quality high protein kibbles will run $30-$50+ per ferret per month
- Housing - Many low cost cage options on the market are not safe for ferrets or large enough to give proper spaces for all activities (sleeping, large litterbox, feeding). We only recommend Ferret Nation or Prevue Feisty Ferret (with wire floor permanently covered). They will run $100-$350.
- Accessories - We all know once you get a ferret you want to give them toys, blankets, snuggle spots, tunnels, treats, etc. They need to be replaced frequently if any wear becomes dangerous. They need to be changed up frequently also for enrichment.

If you can not afford the rehoming fee, plus all of the above, please reconsider adopting.

Reunited! Bear was found in a neighbors garage! 🤎🤎

Charlotte area folks: Please be on the lookout for Bear!

UPDATE: REUNITED!! Bear is home safe & sound after 4 days, 23 hours :)

"Bear was found in a garage today by a neighbor. Thank you so much for looking out for her. She is home and seems quite well aside from being hungry."
-Bear's Owner
Please spread the word! Bear was LOST on January 25, 2024 in Mint Hill, NC 28227 near Carving Tree

Message from Owner: Bear escaped through a door that wasn't closed properly. She will not live very long outside. Please help us get her . We love our little Bear!

Description:

For more info or to contact Bear's owner, click here: https://www.pawboost.com/p/69954884

Lost or found a pet? Report it to PawBoost here: https://www.pawboost.com/l/rpl

🎄🎄 Merry Christmas! 🎄🎄

Absolutely love this video! It shows all the wild mustelidae cousins with some fun sarcasm thrown in😁

True Facts: The Rise of the Kitten Snake Check out Curiosity Stream! Go to https://curiositystream.com/zefrank and use code: zefrank to get 25% off when you sign up!merch: https://ze-true-store.mysh...

❄️❄️FOUND! Added pictures❄️❄️
Will need proof of ownership to claim. Ferret is in very good condition. 🩵 Text us at 704-251-9949 if it is your ferret.

Found in Concord NC, off Transit Court NW.

Please contact us if you are missing a ferret. Sighted at a business 12/4 and 12/5.

Today is the day! Giving Tuesday! This year, we're working with our partners over at CUDDLY to fundraise for our amazing rescue efforts and animals - and we'd love it if you'd support us by donating or even doing something as small as sharing our post to spread the word far and wide.

We thank you so much for your endless support this year!

CLICK HERE TO DONATE:https://cuddly.com/donate/4928986/lucy

If you are looking to purchase a cage, now is the time! Great deals on the ABSOLUTE BEST cage for ferrets.

Chewy has an additional 30% off at checkout for a single or double ferret nation:
https://www.chewy.com/midwest-ferret-nation-deluxe-ferret/dp/239614

Amazon has a black friday "Limited-time deal" for the double ferret nation https://a.co/d/8gFNGiq

If you are looking to rehome your ferret, we are asking that you join our newly created group.
www.facebook.com/groups/351174327282561/

Please create a post with the following information:
1) Location (City, State)
2) Rehoming Fee
3) Name(s), ages, and medical history
4) Brief description of ferrets personality, including likes and dislikes
5) Pictures of the ferret and cage (if cage will be included)

We have created this group as the local Charlotte Facebook group was recently closed/suspended for personal reasons of the founder.

Those looking to adopt are encouraged to join, and ask questions directly of the rehoming owner.

One week left! Please remember to switch reoccurring donations to another platform. Meta will no longer support reoccurring donations.

We have 2 options for reoccurring donations going forward:

PayPal Giving Fund: http://paypal.com/us/fundraiser/charity/4638202
Use this direct link to setup reoccurring donations, this method has zero fees.

Zelle (Reoccurring option not available through all banks): Look us up under [email protected]
To do reoccurring, click on "Send On", if your bank allows reoccurring a separate screen will give option for reoccurring. As we are setup as a business Zelle has a 1% fee.

THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT! As a non-profit donations and adoption fees are our primary source of funds.

Thank you to the Triangle Ferret Lovers group and NCSU for inviting us to participate in their annual ferret lab for their veterinarian students.

The students learned how to give ferrets exams, clip nails, give vaccinations, and implant microchips.

It was a busy day! We enjoyed talking with folks about ferrets that previously may have not had a chance to interact with ferrets.

Thank you to our wonderful supporters The Robinson's! So very thoughtful of you to donate items off our wish list.

You can find the links to our wish lists on our website homepage: www.pitstopferret.org

💚💚 COURTESY POSTING 💚💚
Aria, Yuki, and Mika are the names of these three adorable and loving ferrets. Both girls are around 8 months old, and Yuki is almost a year old.

All ferrets are up to date on shots, descented, spayed/neutered, and have been to the vet in the past 2 months.

Notes from Owner:
Mika is a brown cinnamon Colored ferret with the cutest white mask around her eyes. She has the most adorable pink nose, and you’re sure to fall in love with the first time she sleeps in your lap. She is calm and super friendly and is always playful and sweet to anyone she meets. She likes to play with anything that has a string, and her favorite thing to do is push a ball around the room with her nose.

Aria is definitely the most beautiful of the bunch with her extraordinary coat and fur pattern. Incredibly playful and always in a good mood, she loves to crawl on your shoulders and enjoy the view. She is sweet and entertaining with her quirky personality and cute antics.

Yuki is a cream-colored ferret with a cute pink nose that looks like a button. He is calm and usually cuddly, and he likes to be held. He loves attention and definitely has a silly personality that shines through as he hops across the floor happily with any toy he is given.

All three ferrets are loving, and you’re sure to love all of their quirks and silly things they do. They would make wonderful pets along with wonderful memories. All three ferrets are good with kids, and none of them bite. Consider these cute little noodles if you’re thinking about bringing new pets into your home

All three are located in King, NC. Re-homing fee would be $300 and includes the cage to house them.

Apply today on our website!

Stray Ferret Found!
Currently at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Animal Care and Control

UPDATE: ADOPTED
💜💜 Courtesy Posting 💜💜
Rocket and Padfoot need a new home!
Apply today on our website!

Notes from Owner:
Looking to rehome these already bonded ferrets as we no longer have enough time to care for them- Rocket and Padfoot. Rocket has the white paws and white chest and he's a Sable Ferret. Padfoot is all black with a white face Black Sable Ferret. These two ferrets are super playful with each other and loves to play with pillowcases, shirts, chew toys, and cardboard boxes! They are both a little over a year old and have been bonded. They have been neutered and descented. They have not been around other animals before but are open to meeting new people. They have had their distemper and rabies vaccinations. They are great with children but they do like to nibble (never hard enough to leave marks) when play fighting! They've got to warm up to you before enjoying some cuddle time with you so be sure to let them get to know you first. They're very healthy and have no health issues. The are potty trained to use the litter boxes.
We'll provide you everything you need for $300 (negotiable) to get them situated in your home. We are located in Thomasville, NC.

Owner will provide -
The remainder of their Marshall Ferret brand food and litter - food will be good for another month, litter will be good for another 2 months, 5 litter boxes, 2 water bottles, 1 food bowl, 2 story ferret nation cage with ramps and coverings, Bedding, Carrier, Hammocks and tunnels for the cage, 2 Harnesses, 2 short leashes (6ft), 2 long leashes (15ft), Marshall Ferret Ball Pit and Balls

We are firm believers in vaccinating ferrets.

There are many stories about vaccine reactions, we have only experienced 1 and that was many years ago.

We hear "the pet store said our ferret was already vaccinated". If your ferrets are more than 9 months old, this is not the case. Marshalls just changed their protocols this year (ferrets "shipped" after 2/26) to fully vaccinate for distemper.

We are setting up a transfer from another rescue soon! We will be trying to cover all waitlist adopters.

If you have not completed your application, now is the time to do so! Many folks have action items to complete:
- Written Landlord Approval
- Confirming Vet
- Photos of cage and/or play area

Ned and Maja are still looking for their new home!! Please consider adopting this "mature" pair!!

We do not condone "liberating" domestic animals.

We do not handle mink, cousins to ferrets, but wanted everyone to be aware of what is going on in the greater mustelidae family 🥺🥺

⚠️Please share along to help spread awareness, especially with anyone you know in the affected areas.⚠️

Once again, animal rights extremists have made the choice to gravely endanger the native ecosystem and directly cause the horrific suffering of thousands of animals. 7000 mink have been released in PA, dumped from one situation of suffering into a new situation of suffering.

To the individuals that just condemned thousands of mink to horrific deaths and potentially unleashed devastating disease into the wildlife in Pennsylvania: follow you own literal code of conduct and either take them all home or humanely euthanize them on site if you're going to continue hitting mink farms. What you're doing is NOT liberation, and it's NOT humane. Frankly, you deserve criminal animal cruelty charges.

Here's our in-depth response to the ethical issues of mass releasing fur farm mink:

There are a number of us that specialize specifically in working with displaced and rescued fur farm mink. We are intimately familiar with the behaviours, stressors, and drivers of fur farm mink and the differences between fur farm mink and the wild American mink. And we wholeheartedly appreciate most actions taken to end fur farming.

We do not... EVER... support or condone these direct action mass releases. Bluntly, it is a act of animal cruelty to release fur farm mink like this, and the people who do these mink releases should be prosecuted for federal animal cruelty.

Releases like this with mink are NOT a "liberation" in any way, shape, or form. You aren't "setting a mink free", you are condemning it to a *more* horrific death than the mobile gas chamber fur farmers use. That is saying something, because the mobile gas chambers are already not the most humane method of euthanasia.

We don't support breaking the law in general, but on this topic the law and ethics are two separate concerns, so we are not addressing the legal aspects of a release. We are speaking strictly to the ethics involved in this situation.

#1. When you choose to "liberate" an animal, it is your ethical responsibility to understand that animal's needs and behaviors, and what that animal will experience after liberation. It is your responsibility to understand and prepare to mitigate the stressors a mink will experience during a release. When you choose to open the door for a fur farm mink, it is your responsibility to understand that this is an animal that must remain in human care, it is NOT wildlife. It is your responsibility to understand the utter panic and stress that mink will feel post-release, and in order for a release to be ethical, it is your responsibility to mitigate that panic and stress.

#2. No captive bred and raised animal should ever be "liberated" unless there is a place lined up for it to go. When you choose to open a cage door, clip a chain, etc and remove/release an animal from it's current situation, that animal's welfare then becomes YOUR responsibility. It is your job, your ethical responsibility to keep that animal safe from harm and free of stressors. It is your ethical responsibility to ensure it has daily food, water, shelter, and medical care. If you cannot provide or arrange these things, your actions then become cruel and unethical- you should not be depriving that animal of the care it requires. When you release a domestic fur farm mink without having a place prepared for that mink, you are depriving this domestic animal of shelter and a reliable food source. Don't release it if you can't provide for it!

#3. When you choose to open those cages and dump a massive number of these animals into the environment, you need to realize that you are potentially causing an ecological disaster. Fur farm mink can carry a parvovirus called ADV, or "Mink Aleutian Disease". This virus can be EASILY spread to native wildlife. There is no ethical rationalization for intentionally releasing such a terrible potential ecological disaster. It has also become evidently clear that mink are capable of contracting and spreading the deadly H5N1 virus, known as Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza. This virus has an extremely high fatality rate in birds and mammals alike. Then there is also COVID, which can easily spread on mink farms and, with a mass release, spill out and spread to wildlife including mustelids, canids, fields, and even cervids.

#4. When you choose to open these cages and unethically dump these domestic animals into the wild, you are condemning most of them to suffer or die, with broken mangled bodies, on the roadside. You are condemning them to being shot at, chased, poisoned, ripped apart by dogs. You are condemning them to slowly waste away and starve to death. Have you even tried to bring a displaced domestic mink back from starvation, watching helplessly as it's organs shut down? Many of these mink have zero idea how to hunt, being from captive, selectively breed lines going back 150 years. Again, these are NOT wild animals! They are domestic. A handful *may* survive, but thousands will endure intense panic, pain, and suffering.

#5. If by some chance some of these domestic mink DO manage to survive in the wild, do you understand that you are potentially exposing native wild American mink to horrific and debilitating genetic conditions? Genetic issues that are exclusive to farm mink? Genetic issues that wild mink don't normally suffer from? Do you realize that your actions could doom the future health of wild mink in the area? Have you had to deal with medically treating debilitating genetic issues in fur farm mink? We have. These genetics should NOT be introduced to native wild mink. It dooms future generations to shorter lifespans and intensely painful ailments.

#6. You upend the lives of many other people who get affected by the consequences of your actions. People who have never before dealt with mink in any way or form. People who fear for their small livestock, who will end up killing the mink to protect their property. You cause financial loss, emotional stress and a growing hatred in these people. You cause mink lives to be lost in often brutal ways designed to "pay back" what a mink may have done following its natural instincts.

When you choose to open those cages and walk away at the end of it...

Many fur farmers will file an insurance claim and can get a payout for damages.

The "cause" suffers damage, and animal welfare activists take a hit to their credibility due to your unethical, careless, and ignorant actions.

The mink go through elevated levels of stress and pain, and often meet a MORE brutal end than they would on the farm (as horrific as farm life and death already is).

Mink, as a species, go through another wave of being villainized and treated like trash (this impacts native wild mink as well). This actually jeopardizes mink that are currently safe in the care of rescues and sanctuaries - acts like this release increase the risk of enacting laws that will declare mink as injurious, and will likely force mink in sanctuary care in some states to be euthanized.

And the rescuers, the wildlife rehabilitators- we scramble to triage the horrible mess you've created and try to actually SAVE some of these mink. We respond to the messages and pick up/intake, frantically network for fosters remotely. Rush mink to the vet, fill their bellies, keep them safe, test them for ADV. Rescues foot the bill -physically, emotionally, monetarily- for your shortsighted, unethical follies.

So as far as we are concerned this is not even remotely a debatable topic. People who open the cages and walk away are guilty of horrific animal cruelty and ecological destruction. They damage the fight to end fur farming. Their actions are selfish and utterly without ethical consideration. Their intentions, however noble, frankly do not matter, this. is. cruelty.

Animal activism should not involve cruelty, it should not involve killing innocent animals and risking the fate and future of our native wildlife.

Share your "ferret shaming" moments!

We know there are moments every day with ferrets😁😁

🩵🩵COURTESY POSTING🩵🩵

Ned (male, 4yo, likely deaf) and Maja (female, 4 yo).

Located in Raleigh, NC. Owner is happy to transport/drive a reasonable distance for the right adopter.

🩵🩵INFORMATION FROM OWNER🩵🩵
Ned is a silly, energetic, playful guy. He loves to wrestle with other ferrets and with his peoples' hands and feet. He loves tunnels and a ball pit, and definitely enjoys running and dooking. When he's sufficiently tired himself out he'll find a nice spot to take a nap, you just have to try to keep track of his hiding places because he doesn't hear you when you're looking for him (he likes to hide in a small hole in the underside of a loveseat in their room, Maja stores cat food and trinkets in there). He will throw temper tantrums when he wants to get out of the cage.

Maja is a very sweet curious lady. She will cuddle, but she needs sufficient time to explore her surroundings and play before she'll settle down with you. On that same vein, she really likes just being with people; she likes to lay on my shoulders while I'm puttering around the house doing small tasks. She really enjoys when I'm making coffee and brushing my teeth lol. Maja is an expert escape artist; she can climb over/through most gates, doors, barriers. She's also playful but is more docile than Ned, loves dangling wand toys, rattles and bells, squeaky toys, tunnels, and hammocks. She also definitely gets enrichment from digging, I can include a video of her with one of her favorite (now dead) plants lol.

They eat Marshall's standard ferret food; I had them on a 50/50 mix of that and Wysong but they stopped eating the Wysong pellets. They are definitely bonded and need to stay together. I had a third ferret, Marceline, who died at 1.5 years old of pancreatic cancer in 2021, she was very much the fun bouncy baby that did the grooming and ear cleaning for Ned and Maja, she was playful with Ned and cuddly with Maja. Since she died they've been a bit less "them" and always get excited to be around other ferrets, so I know they would do well joining an existing business. They both do really well with cats; Ned has wrestled an 11 lb siamese mix and won.

They are also both litter box trained (paper pellet litter), but will go in corners of the cage when the boxes get medium-dirty. Neither of them care for baths or nail trims but they will tolerate it with little effort. Both of them also really enjoy being outside exploring in the grass and do well with a harness and leash. Maja hates snow but Ned has played in it a few times.

As mentioned before, they are so much more lively and happy when they're getting plenty of time out of the cage to run around. Maja is good at escaping, so I had a custom cut plexiglass panel cut to act as a solid gate that she can't get through, but I can still monitor her in their room. (I used velcro command strips on the wall around the doorway lined up to the edges of the plexiglass, its movable and renter friendly so please let me know if any potential adopters want to know more).

Will come will double Ferret Nation cage, several pan covers, crinkle sacs, 2.5 litter boxes inside, extra large hammock, two water bowls and a food bowl.

Rehoming fee $100. Please apply on our website today to be considered!
www.pitstopferret.org/adoptions/AdoptionApplication

UPDATE: OWNER FOUND!
Found Ferret
South Charlotte NC
Will need proof of ownership to reclaim.