Putting together a ferret festival / expo!

A friend, and I were talking about putting together a ferret festival and was curious to see if anyone has ever been to one?
What are some things you'd like to see at a ferret festival?
Any games?
Any treats that'd be easy to make for the ferrets to eat?
Any suggestions, or ideas?

What type of scale were you thinking of? Is this something that retailers go to, or more of a gathering of ferrents and their ferrets to play and discuss things? Would this be at a professional establishment, or a home? 

Just getting some more info before I think of stuff :)

One event I know of that's pretty popular (possibly even betting..shhhh) is tunnel races. Clear plastic tubing [solid, not flexible] on stands about 4-5 feet high.  Playpens (think a marshall's 11 panel) and a ball pit.  A small kiddie pool with water , balls or even plastic bags or leaves.  (I got one from Dollar General at the end of the season for $0.80)  One thing you have to consider is that not everyone will have their vaccines, unless you enforce it;  if you do, your attendance will suffer.
Snapper13 has much experience with larger shows.  I've wanted to organize one locally for years, but have no local ferret contacts, and no money to invest atm, lol.   I know there are fuzzies around here.  Maybe an ad on craigslist to see what kind of response you get.    Good luck.  

THE DOOKS OF HAZARD

Is there a local ferret shelter in your area.  If so, you can help put on a fundraiser for the shelter.  This will help bring in the people.  We have two shelter events for a ferret shelter.
One in the spring called "Clinic Day"  we have the shelter vet come in and he does the vaccine for anyone that wants their ferrets vaccinated.  The fall event is "Christmas in October" or Open House.  We switch off in the fall.

Here what goes on at our event

*silent auction / raffle
*Use auction
*games
*Photographer at the event.  
*gift exchange  "christmas in October"
*nail and ear cleaning.
*cook out  (everyone brings a dish to pass)

I hope this helps

Great idea, wen!  I am an hour from the nearest ferret shelter, and it's in a BIG town.  Now that Snapper13 is in FL, we should organize some shelter benefit. 

THE DOOKS OF HAZARD

This sounds like a ton of fun! I've been trying to get my work to coordinate a "Ferret Fun Day" event (we do monthly events and seminars in the winter) but haven't really gotten much enthusiasm, unfortunately. I think it's something I'd have to coordinate myself.

For those of you who attend ferret events (and bring your ferrets), is it required that ferrets be vaccinated/adv tested before interacting?

Ferrets: Wesley, Percy, Owen    -rip Bandit-
Bettas- Kitty, Pip, and Logan
Sun Conure- Kita
Gerbils- Piper and Tailer

That would be awesome in Florida. For any city or town for that matter. Locals organizing with locals at a shelter or pet store. Possibly a public park with games and obstacles and food!

I know that the one my friend and I were going to attend had the vaccination rule, that's part of the reason her and I are wanting to create an event, there are a lot of great ideas that have been listed here, but the majority of them seem catered to the ferrets, as they should be since it's ferret festival, but what about for the humans? (I asked, and she said I have to leave the alcohol, at home :(. ) 

As for vaccines...
This is something I would research, never having been to ferret events.  I don't know if you'd need any kind of permit, and if so, would all of the participants need rabies vax if it's required by county/city?  Most of mine don't don't have it (Jaffa and Prissy had it in 2011 to come into the USA), because the chances of getting rabies vs. the risks of reacting to the vaccine aren't worth it to us.
.  
Also related to vaccines... A friend in UK takes hers to shows and events.  In August, all 4 came down with ECE and were on antibiotics for a month. One of them went to the Bridge a couple weeks ago.  He was older, but the vet said it was complications of ECE.  There's no test for it, and all you can do is treat symptoms and prevent complications, like respiratory infections, with antibiotics.  So, back in the day I was all gung ho about getting some sort of ferret show going.  Now I'm hesitant to take mine to one.  We don't have ADV down here, but ECE is readily transmitted.  It's not usually fatal if caught early and treated, but any exposed ferret will get it and it can take months to show itself.  Just a precaution to consider.  Probably if you had a show in a public place you'd have to have at least rabies.
As for alcohol, I wouldn't ban it outright, but I wouldn't encourage it either, especially for the first event.  Don't even mention it.  You wouldn't know most of the people coming, so why leave yourself open to trouble?

There are 2 shelters within 90 minutes of us, plus the one we got Rosa from.  

THE DOOKS OF HAZARD

one of things we do at the event is rent shelter kid for day.  It's 5.00 for a kid and that money goes to the shelter.    Shelter kids just love it.  By the end of day....they are soooo tired.

Usually the day flys by.....next minute you are packing up and heading home.   We usually have everything planned....so it makes the day go fast.

but what about for the humans?

At the Chicago fun fest, we had grooming classes:  how to clean your ferret ears, how to trim their nails, etc.


Also for humans, vendors, raffle, and silent auction items.


We had chili dogs and nachos (basically crockpot type of food)




So basically the same thing that happens at Wenmister's event.

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