Q: "What is your take on the breeding controversy?" [Regarding a lengthy
FML discussion I have not yet read, but the questioner wrote a rather
long explanation]
 
A: Hell, I admit I'm not a good breeder, but I'm willing to practice and
get better.
 
I have three problems with some breeders (not all of them, but some).
First, I think ANY breeding that causes change to the skull or skeleton
should be abolished.  Not legally, but people shouldn't buy those
ferrets, they should loudly complain and protest the breeding, and they
should influence their clubs and organizations to place sanctions
(perhaps disqualifications) against such showing such animals to prevent
awards that might encourage additional breeding.  This would include
long or short-faced ferrets, unusually large or small ferrets, long or
short-tailed ferrets, or those with obvious skeletal malformations.  DO
NOT MISUNDERSTAND.  I am NOT saying people should not adopt or care for
or love these animals, all I am saying is economics rule, so use
economics to influence the decision.
 
My second problem is SOME ferret colorations are tied to obvious genetic
problems.  A very intelligent and informed person asked me about this
very subject while I was in Chicago, and I said that we are lucky that
most of the nasty problems with albinos were eliminated centuries ago so
we didn't have to deal with them now.  Currently, albino ferrets have
significant impact to their visual system; how could a retina that relies
on pigments to properly function not be impacted negatively?  And since
pigments are also important to the function of the inner ear and brain,
those are negatively impacted as well.  There is a difference between
albino, depigmented, and diluted, and thus far the worst problems appear
to be in the depigmented ferrets, such a blazes or pandas.  But here's
the rub; people like these colorations and buy them.  As long as that
occurs, there is little or no way that the problem can be easily solved.
 
Logic dictates that if you cull (sterilize, not kill) the deaf ones, the
problem will cure itself.  However, that solution is extremely simplistic
because while it takes into account Mendelian genetics, it complete
misses phenotypic plasticity.  You have seen this yourself.  Image twins;
at birth they are completely identical, at 5 years of age you can tell
differences, at 20 the differences are more profound, and at 40 many are
like different people.  They have identical genetics (genotypes), but
different appearances (phenotypes).  A lot of traits have phenotypic
plasticity; height, for example, tends to code for a minimum and maximum
range, rather for a specific height.  Height, muscle mass, growth rate,
intelligence, and even metabolism do not have set values determined by
genetics, but rather a range of possibilities that allow adaptation to
specific environments.  What that means is, you can cull the deaf
ferrets, but that won't prevent others from showing up.  They are deaf
because the pigmented cells required for the middle ear to function
properly are not migrating at the correct time.  Since these migrations
are linked to coloration schemes with head or facial depigmentation, you
can never guarantee that breeding for these traits will not result in
deafness or other, more serious, problems.
 
My third problem is breeding ferrets to polecats to increase size or
intensify dark color schemes.  Currently, ferrets are larger than
polecats, but the weight difference is mostly due to nutritional
regimes, not in size or muscle mass.  Mink ranchers know that feeding
carbohydrates to ranched mink results in faster growth and slightly
larger animals.  They do this because they want the largest possible
pelts, and long-term health is not a concern.  Ferrets react to the
growth-stimulating effect of carbohydrates similarly to mink.  I have a
litter of ferrets that primarily eat meat; they eat some kibble just in
case I have to board them.  For the most part their diet is Bob's Chicken
Gravy, raw chicken (including bones), boiled chicken bones, frozen mice
and young rats, crickets, mealworms, snails, frozen goldfish, chopped
chicken and beef livers and hearts, and various other cuts of meat.
These animals free-range and are never caged.  They live in a room
illuminated by natural light, and if I need a light, I use a flashlight
or an overhead fixture fitted with a red light.  Popeye and Bluto were
neutered at 18 months in the middle of a rut, and that was two years ago.
On this diet, they have retained the "rounded-face" look of an unaltered
male hob.
 
The trick is, two things are going on.  First, the type of food you eat
influences the work the muscles have to do, which in turn influences the
bone growth under the muscles.  If you want a male ferret with a big
head, don't feed it kibble.  Kibble requires very little work to consume,
and yet it wears down the teeth extremely rapidly.  Because the jaw
muscles do relatively little work, they atrophy.  You see the same
muscle loss in older ferrets, although age is driving the change, not
necessarily food.  Raw foods are tough they require a lot of muscle
power to chew.  If you work out, you know the result: stronger, bulkier
muscles.  The side-benefit is all that tough chewing, especially if the
food is whole bodied with feather or fur, makes the teeth much cleaner.
The point here is you can breed ferrets to polecats all day long, but
those beautiful big heads will be lost soon after they are neutered and
placed on a kibbled diet.
 
As for breeding ferrets to polecats for color, it will make them darker
if the polecat is darker.  The reason is not necessarily color genetics.
When you domesticate an animal, the resulting progeny are ALWAYS lighter
in color (don't argue black labs or any other dark animals that were
purposely breed to be dark).  The reason is because domestication slows
down the migration of pigmented cells, so that not as many are present in
a given area of skin, so the result is a color dilution.  If you breed a
light ferret to a dark polecat and end up with dark kits, you will also
have animals with polecat behaviors, not domesticated ones.  It is BEING
domesticated that results in the dilution of color, NOT fur color
genetics.  Understand, we are discussing breeding sables, not any of the
depigmented, albinistic, or purposeful color dilutions whose color is the
result of genetic changes.  Ferrets were domesticated to scare animals
out of burrows, so old time breeders looked for tameness and courage, not
physical changes.  Thus, the domestication of the ferret has resulted
primarily in behavioral changes; a genetically tamed polecat.  If we
start breeding back to polecats, we would reduce those behavioral traits,
making the offspring unreliable, perhaps even dangerous.
 
That is my take on the subject.  If you want me to expand parts of this
discussion, remind me when I return from Europe and I will happily do so.
 
Bob C: [log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 4674]