In English

SUOMEN FRETTIYHDISTYS RY
THE FINNISH FERRET ASSOCIATION INC.

General information about the association

Kirsi Hartikainen and Olli- Pekka Halonen established the Finnish Ferret Association Inc. in the beginning of 1998. Mr. Halonen does not work with the association any more. The main reason for establishing this association was to unite people who are interested in ferrets; either breeders of pedigree ferrets or just owners all over Finland. At first Ms. Hartikainen had no intention to found an association but she got very busy in sending letters and making phone calls as being an importer of ferrets and that led her to decide for an association. She got her first ferrets from Lars and Nadine Eriksson in Sweden. She ordered twice later ferrets from Denmark. The Finnish Ferret Association Inc. is a registered association.

We, three sisters: Kaisa, Kirsi and Riikka Hartikainen run today most of the activities. We publish a member magazine called Fretteri as four issues a year in size A5. You will find both humoristic and serious articles, photographs and pictures in this member magazine. We also answer all kinds of questions about ferrets in the magazine and also by letters and E-mail or you can even call us.

In 2006 Merja Hyttinen from Imatra is the chairman of the committee. The association has eight members in committee; the total number of members in association is some thirty this year. The figure is low because there is also other ferret associations in Finland competing for same potential members.


Registeration

The association has two different registers. In the official owner register the owner is required to give of last two generations back of the ferret to be registered. For the probation register the owner only needs to list the ferret’s parents. If the owner wants to have the ferret listed in the official register, he/she needs approval from two judges for that.


The goals of the ferret association and some things that are under consideration.

• We have a forum in address: http://sfyry.board.dk3.com/2/. Everybody is welcome to our forum!



• Other principal goals of the Finnish Ferret Association Inc. are to recruit more members, give information about ferrets and promote breeding by developing and improving the skills of breeders. We also find it important to promote publicity for ferrets in our country. To reach these goals we organize exhibitions and write articles to various publications etc.



• We also establish connections to ferret people in other countries.



• The Finnish Ferret Association Inc. does not have colour standards. So we should do them.



• There is not judges of ferret shows here in Finland so we have organized only pet shows. Two persons should go for example to Sweden and study to be judges.

Events

Our association arranged a pet show in 1999, but it was not very large. There we also evaluated other pets: rabbits and guinea pigs. In 2002 we also had a plan for a pet show, but people didn’t inform their pets to show. The show would have got a lot of spectators so a cancellation was a very sad thing. And a Swedish judge was angry because she didn’t need to come in Finland.

We had a three days presentation in connection with a fair in 2000. There were many interested people and we often had to answer same questions time after time and we also handed out a lot of leaflets containing information about ferrets and our association.

The association has had two ferret meetings: in 2002 (in Lahti) and in 2003 (in Imatra).

The association was in International Dog Show Winner 2003 in Helsinki Fair Centre 6.12-7.12.2003. There was a pet fair too. We tell about our association and ferrets to people. There visit about 45 000 people at this weekend in Helsinki Fair Centre.

The Finnish Ferret Association Inc. has a ferret pet show and lectures on feeding and reproduction of ferret in March 2004 in Asikkala. There was about 30 ferrets in show!


Ferrets in Finland

Most people in Finland hardly know what a ferret is. Until now ferrets have not been well known in Finland. Recently they have got more publicity for instance in TV, newspapers and magazines. It has been estimated that there are about 1000 ferrets today in Finland. We believe that ferrets were very few before year 1998 and only since then they have become more popular. There are also pages in Finnish about them. We hope that people would publish more about their hobby in the Internet spreading information about ferret hobby.

In Finland we do not have many colour variants of ferrets yet. The most popular colours are sable and pastel while albino is the least popular. Here most ferrets have short hair fur and a long hair variant is rare. Some ferrets may develop character faults that should be eliminated.


Cages

Ferrets are very active pets and they need a roomy cage for the time left alone. Sometimes owners may even leave them free in their apartment when away. Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act defines the size of the cage for various pets. Minimum cage area is 1 square metre and height 60 cm. In case of several ferrets in one cage the minimum area per animal is 0.35 square metres. Temperature requirement is 10 – 21 °C and ferrets need to have possibility for climbing and hiding to rest. They are very sociable and need company.


Vets and vaccination

Most vets know very little about ferrets. It can be difficult to find a suitable vet, but fortunately most of the large vet clinics have more knowledge about ferrets. Ferrets need immunization against distemper (usually Distemink is given). Immunization against rabies is not mandatory and it is not recommended if a ferret be only in Finland (preparation is Rabisin).


Breeding of ferret

Today the association have only one registered breedername. We have very little information about many small breeders. Some people want that their female ferret make only one litter. After that an owner takes the ferret to vet and she/he sterilize a ferret.

Some people may breed ferrets with poor knowledge about them. We have heard that ferret youngsters have been fed even with oat porridge! Sometimes also polecats have been sold as ferrets. These are only some examples of poor breeding.


Pet Shops

Many people acquire their ferrets from pet shops. Pet shops buy them mostly from Denmark or Holland for their reasonable price. Unfortunately all pet shops do not give an official document of the pet. But nowadays all owners of pet shops don´t buy ferrets in their shops if they for example can not give a big cage to ferret. Sometimes it may be difficult to find suitable fodder for ferrets in local pet shop. Most cat food does not contain enough of fat and protein for ferrets. If you are lucky you can find specific ferret food (for example James Wellbeloved Ferret Complete). Other ferret cage accessories, tunnels and like, is best available in Helsinki and southern Finland. We can’t get some stuff to Finland because importers don´t want to import them.