I have a question for those of you discussing this Coats & Temperment subjet.
 
I tend to agree with you about how you treat a ferret will determine how
its temperment is - but then I think of our own ferret and question my
own reasoning.
 
Our female albino is VERY aggressive.  When we got her (as a kit) we
expected health problems because of being an albino.  Our vet said she
seemed to be somewhat blind, although I think she can see shadows, but
her vision isn't like the other ferrets.
 
When I say aggressive, I mean with her mouth!  If you could see my husbands
nose, you'd know what I mean.  I've posted here several times regarding her
"nipping", if you can call it that.  The last time she nipped my husband, she
split his nostril and took off a chunk of flesh from the tip of his nose.
 
She's never nipped my face like that, however, I've never put her close
to my face - so go figure.  Her biting isn't done out of visciousness,
and she doesn't act fearful of anyone.  And she doesn't just bite to be
put down.  I think a lot of it has to do with her vision and possible a
side-effect of being an albino - she's just aggressive.
 
You can be holding her and she'll start to sniff you or lick you and then
WAMO.  Blood.  At first I thought she was afraid of my husband and therefore
bit him - but she doesn't avoid him.  She plays with him and on the average,
he can hold her without losing flesh.  Its just every once in a while, and
definately out of the blue she'll take a chomp of the first piece of flesh
she comes in contact with.
 
For a while, her way of enticing play, or just getting attention, whether
she wanted to be picked up or shown attention, she would nip at you - and
WAY too hard - most of the time drawing blood.  We spent months teaching her
not to nip that hard - with little or no success.  For a short while, she
seemed like she caught on that nipping hurt us, but right when whe thought
we got through to her, she'd tear a piece of flesh out of one of our legs
for no reason other than it was there.
 
She's not being malicious or viscious - she just doesn't seem to understand
that it hurts when she bites that hard.  All the other ones caught on rather
quickly with the exact same reinforcement - except Snowball.  Its been 9
months now - and we're still battling it and the other 4 outgrew it almost
immediately.  That's why I've kind of attributed it to genetic - she's
healthy in every way so far - so in expecting health problems, we never even
thought of behavioral problems.
 
I'm not saying that all albinos have aggressive temperment.  I'm just
stating the fact that ours does - and we don't treat her any different
than our other 4.  If anyone out there has some imput on this, I'd be
very interested in hearing it.
 
Mish, Kenny & the 5 kids
[Posted in FML issue 1210]