I really Believe that marshals put in some new lines to their breeders.
I live in VA and run a small Foster Program to help out people in my
town find homes for certain ferrets. So far I've helped re home and
foster 6 sets of ferrets 2 or more each time. In those sets, The older
the ferret the smaller they were. It also depended on health but they
are REALY different from the younger set I personally have.

In my own group of 11 ferrets, My oldest girl is just over a 1 lb and
refuses to grow muscle. She's also now my oldest ferrett being born in
07. Her mate is a hefty male of 3 or so lbs and has lots of muscle yet
he's still has that long face, tough fur styled ferret.

And as my group gets younger, I can almost see the get better. My next
ferrets are two girls that are as small as lelloo but with a nice coat
and better toning. They are 3-5 with really bad teeth. (I wonder if
that's due to genetics with brittle teeth?)

My next girl turned 2 this year and is still the long skinny type of
ferret but has a brilliant natural crisp white coat with NICEEE muscle
mass. She's also full of quirks that make owning her interesting.

The next group of ferrets are a few months older pixie but seem to be
a combination of the old ferrets bred with the new ones. Bear is a
largish male with a fat head but a crappy coat. It's like they were
trying to see what ferret they would get out of mixing the good genes
with a defective breeder. Swipper is worse. She's small but not whippet
style with bad coat, color, etc. Muscle mass is okay but you can tell
she has some set of interesting genes.

A set of three are the last piece to this puzzle of improving genetics.
These three were born last year. One in Nov, the two born a month
ahead. You can see a HUGE difference in style with them. Lets start
with dirt. He's going to grow up like jack jack. He's long but fatter
and his coat is really nice. The little girl that has been his cage
mate is a cutely pie with nice coat, head, etc. You can still see the
pointed features but they are more rounded than the other groups. LAST
and youngest kid is Taz the Spazz. He's extremely big for his age and
laid back. He went to the show and was my lap partner. He has the
complete Rounded pole cat features with a thickkkkk thiiiicckkk maybe
even pudgey frame.

I also see some chang in the mind set. It seems the younger girls are
slightly neurotic with being dominate and stubborn while the boys
usually use their human for food. Tazzie, the youngest, however does
see to have some weird habits that can't be matched with the other
crew. Taz has known me sine he was 12 weeks old and yet when I peak
over the ferret gate he runs to a tunnel like it's a instinct to hide
or something. after he clarify it's me, he'll come out to say hello. I
haven't talked to anyone with pole-cat inbreeds so I can't see if it's
possible a wild attribute but it's definitely something that doesn't
follow the other guys pattern of behavior.

TTYL,
Cara creator of ttfr's foster  program.

[Posted in FML 7028]