I enjoyed Shelby's post about French ferrets, and Mark's on his hunting
trip in the English countryside.  In so many ways ferrets are treated
differently in different countries, but our love for them is very much
the same!
 
Mark wrote
>It would be interesting to see if some of the genetic traits of these
>ferrets could help our ferrets and the genetic problems that have been
>a possible cause of these major glandular abnormalities.
 
Is it genetic traits that make US ferrets different?  Or the result of
the VERY different way in which the European/UK ferrets are cared for?
The hunting ferrets are kept whole rather than neutered at an early age,
they are fed primarily whole animals rather than kibble, and they are
housed outside in natural lighting conditions.
 
These three things are key suspects in what causes the high incidence of
adrenal disease and insulinoma we see here.  Is it the genetic makeup of
the overseas ferrets that protects them?  Or their more natural living
conditions?
 
In the early 90s, importing ferrets from England and Germany was popular;
more recently it has been New Zealand and Australian bloodlines that have
come here.  But it seems to me that when breeding stock is brought to
this country, the resulting off-spring seem to get the same diseases
American ferrets suffer from.
 
Are there any US ferrets kept whole, fed whole prey and housed outside?
How long do they live?  What diseases do they get?  And what happens in
the UK or France or Germany if a ferret is neutered as a tiny baby, fed
kibble and kept indoors?  Is the disease incidence really different??
 
Others thoughts on this?
 
Linda Iroff
Oberlin OH
[Posted in FML issue 3939]