I think that a lot of the people who were not around ferrets in the
U.S. 25 to 30 years ago just don't at all understand what people mean
by red in the older ferrets, but think that they do. That is obvious
in private mails. Even some show judges just don't realize this.

These were DEEP in color, NOT the current reds. Even the dark current
reds are lighter and not at all as red.

Think of human hair. If people had the SAME red colors of the old
ferrets that aren't around now then those people would be called auburn
for the darkest and true red or even "carrot-top" for the bright one.
Maybe the easiest way to get it across is from a hair dye chart. I
advise people who think that they know what we mean to also be sure to
look at the photos; because a number of replies we are getting from
people who say that they know what we mean are NOT referring at all
to what we mean.

http://www.clairol.com/herbalessences/vibrant/shade_chart.pdf
these fur colors were in the red ferrets back then:
35 Auburning Hot would be a light one back then
41 and 43 Summer Passion and Spicy Cinnamon have less red than some of
them but many were this dark yet still red
44 Paint the town is close the bright red that was seen
48.5 Spicy Ginger was common in the red ones back then
A number had BOTH of the last two shades.

I can't recall for all but one what shade the undercoat was except in
that one whose undercoat was a shade people these days might call one
of the deeper cinnamon shades, but the undercoat could not have been
too light in any or that would have bled out the colors. What I DO
recall is that some of the ones I knew or saw there was very little
undercoat present -- like happens with some of the very black ferrets.
The coats were mostly guard hairs, so very sleek, very shiny, and very,
very, very red.

People who were not around then just don't get it that these were NOT
like today's cinnamons, and Becca is right that the names for colors
were applied differently back then.

I didn't know any badly behaved red but sure heard of ferrets like
those Wolfy describes from back then so maybe people stopped breeding
them for the behavioral reasons.

Speaking of variations seen in the past but not seen now there have
been ones stopped with neutering before and it is too bad people did
not do that with the neural crest variation ferrets. These seem to be
among the ones that are gone now:

short tails (because of spina bifida)

Demigigas (I think that was the name. They were larger than typical
and I do not know why they were stopped.)

a strain that was white with black spots (This was from one European
breeder and probably was the very severe L.E.O.P.A.R.D. neural crest
syndrome which has a lot of nasty health burdens such as increased
malignancy and heart disease rates and more.)

a strain that had non-bilateral blotches which looked like patchwork.
Like many situations in a huge range of species where head markings
were strongly non-bilateral the aortas of these ferrets were prone to
giving out.

a dwarf strain (which was burdened with many painful complications)

short faces (there was not enough room for the dental arcade and at
least one attempt to do this got some very handicapped dwarf ferrets)

There are more, I'm sure, and other variations these days which people
SHOULD stop breeding for the sake of the ferrets.

A good place to read past posts on variations and health problems is:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Genetics/

Sukie (not a vet)

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
all ferret topics:
http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html
"All hail the procrastinators for they shall rule the world tomorrow."
(2010, Steve Crandall)

[Posted in FML 6676]