>From:    Rob Dick <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: Can Of Worms And MF
>Can I just comment that some of the horror stories on the list have taken
>me from being an almost ferret owner to being a "let's spend a month or two
>thinking about this" non-ferret owner.  I'd gotten the impression that the
>average ferret spent most of its time near deaths door (even the ones with
>the anthropomorphising owners).
 
The average ferret lives a heathy happy life.  The average ferret owner is
not involved with any ferret organization or any of the 6 mail lists or the
newsgroup.  We're the exception.
 
This list also concentrates on the ill ferrets.  You hear far more from
those with ill ferrets than from folks like us.  With our crowded shelter we
are up to over seventy ferrets (anybody wanna sable?) and in all of those
there is one single case of adrenal problems from a seven year old altered
jill.  No other health problems.
 
>From:    Bob Church <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Bob C: Nutrition and MF
>The 2nd is rarely mentioned, and that is MF ferrets tend to be smaller than
>breeder ferrets.
 
We'd venture that this is obsolete information partially.  Early altered
jills seem to be very nearly the size of late altered or whole jills.  Early
altered hobs tend to appear more feminine and size is a part of that.
 
But comparisions in morphology between early alter and late alter ferrets is
considered very important in AFA judge's training.  It was the primary topic
of the last session.  Less developed muscles and bones seems one result
based on observatio of thousands of ferrets.  AFA judges take that into
account by the way.  But it was noted that several years ago ferrets
originiating from marshall Farms were much larger and healthier in apearance
than they had been before that.  This was during the time after Dr. Judi
Bell had implemented changes in operations that included better pre-natal
and neo-natal feeding for jills.  Dr. Bell has passed to us private breeders
her recipe for a nutritional supplement that really seems to help nursing
jills and thus their kits.  I'll post that if people are interested.
 
>From:    [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: can't resist reply... MF
>To make my self even more clear the term I used was "practical clones" this
>was the term I chose to make the point that science utilizes animales in
>groups of a simular structured genetic pools and then proceeds to vary that
>genetic pool and moves to other structures as the testing proceeds
 
Perhaps your wording wasn't the best.  Most of us, we're sure, took your
meaning the way Pam Greene did.
 
But we disagree with your new statement.  Ferrets are not typically used in
breeding studies but in studies of effects of chemicals or pathogens on
bodies.  PAm's discussion was right on track as far as we can tell.
 
BUT if you choose not to support Marshall Farms because they are involved in
animal reasearch that is your perogative.  That is a very logical step if
you do not approve of animal research.
 
bill and diane killian
zen and the art of ferrets
http://www.zenferret.com/
mailto:[log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 2104]