I was watching a lecture from the states last week. It was a ferret specialist talking about health issues that often turn up in ferrets. He got half the stuff wrong through over simplification but anyway, one of the things he got wrong was basically implying that a ferret who is not a bog-standard sable is likely to carry or have a negative genetic mutation.
It is very worth while here to point out that this man only used examples from the USA and Canada, the ferret farm capitol of the world (this will be important later) and did not know anything about wild ferrets. They don’t exist apparently, EUs aren’t part of his research clearly. Also, worth pointing out; I’m a biologist by qualification and self-interest, so I do actually know this stuff. Heck some of what I’m going into I learned as part of my Hons. Degree!
We’ll start with albino, which is the most numerous. Albino is a natural mutation seen in all sorts of animals. It is often linked to health problems in ferrets but let’s put it this way, I’ve owned about 10 albinos and handled numerous others, 2 have been “defective” and both were bred for something other than lifespan (size), one of these defectives lived to 10 years despite this.
That speaks volumes to me but now to the science! Before ferrets were pets they were workers. Working people often like a white ferret, they’re easier spotted, the hawk recognises them easily, all good things. There is evidence that ferrets have been domesticated for hunting as long as dogs. So, in the last millennia we have bred white red eyed ferrets, expanding the gene pool like angora breeders are currently trying to do, culling off any mutations. Essentially cleaning the lines of other defects and bringing the inbreeding coefficient to a safe level.
If we go back to this guy, he freely admits that all the ferrets in the US are descendants of a handful of ferrets, somewhere or another. I think we’ve found the problem. Lines not colour. Bare this in mind over our next topic.
Now I’ve done a little rant on the colour = ill vs. Lines issue elsewhere. Rather than rehash it just remember it’s always lines.
I cannot remember the farm but last century a fox farm breeding for a biddability in their foxes only, started to see different colours and white markings crop up in their stock. Additionally, this was linked not to health but to more juvenile, social behaviours, and other physical traits like floppy ears. If this is ringing bells that’s because this is the same physical and behavioural changes in wolfs to dogs. These changes are a biproduct of the domestication process.
Kind of ironic that breeding for better pets often results in more unique markings. Again, this is seen across the board in all animals (or mammals at least). Incidentally this also results in ferrets being social with each other when polecats aren’t really (again this will come up later). And unfortunately it also attracts the breeder of “rare” colours, always beware the person who claims to breed rare anything.
I had a book, no idea what happened to it, from way back when sandies were “new” and silvers just starting to be developed. In this book it stated that sandies were likely to become the must have colour for pets because of their docile nature, apparently linked to the colour. Mammals bred for domestication change fur colour. (incidentally did you know in African Pygmy Hedgehogs albino is the “friendliest” colour? That is an albino is more likely to be a good temperament than any other colour)
Now they are no longer new, they’re just another colour. I’ve met as many nice sandys as, let’s just say socially challenged. With ferrets and people. Clearly the colour is not closely linked to temperament. Sadly, they did become the fad colour and were bred only for that resulting in poor temperamental animals and health for some. The bad lines were bred more because they would produce what was wanted, to hell with the consequences.
In America this is more necessity than ego. They only have X lines so if people want friendly, bright coloured ferrets, health is ignored by the farms. They are farms after all, gotta make a profit.
The healthier lines are more for animal testing so cannot be different regarding health or it can skew results. They aren’t all sable, no markings but since they only care about keeping these lines “clean” colour is a biproduct again. Sables, no markings are rare in farmed pet lines so are more likely to be from the healthier farmed lines in a pet shop. This with USA being the main researchers of ferrets results in a myth I dearly hope is squashed. The fact is 2 sables with no markings can produce albinos, sandies, silvers and yes marked kits, it depends on what they carry, and they could just as likely carry the illnesses this myth concerns but not the colours (there’s actually one sable ferret in particular whose lines I am careful to avoid for this very reason). Or just be a symptom of lines bred for temperament.
The important thing is for breeders to breed for temperament and health first and for buyers to Ask the questions, and check the breeder knows and cares about such things. Avoiding in breeding, and keeping track of lines.
And with that we’ve come full circle, hope you enjoyed my little rant/history of ferret colours and health,
Until next time x