>From:    zen and the art of ferrets - bill and diane <[log in to unmask]>
 
>Seen some real malicious speculation on this "new breed".  Its not a new
>breed.  Just new to the United States.
 
Actually, this is a quite new breed.  I don't know of any angoras in Sweden
(who aren't that many I might add) who are more than two or three years old.
The first angoras came to Sweden from Norway where they have been breeding
to get this kind of ferret for a longer period of time.
 
>Its a simple mutation of some sort that has not shown any serious problem
>except maybe nasal clogging by Urban's speculation.  There is no linkage to
>blindness or deafness.  The well accepted pandas have more problems than
>angoras.
 
The big problem with the angoras are their lack of "breeding-knowledge".  As
I stated above the angoras in Sweden are still very young so there haven't
been time for a lot of research, although people are working on it.  The
males don't seem to know what they are supposed to do with the female once
they've managed to attach themselves to her scruff (well, you know what I'm
talking about *g*).  The females in turn don't know how to take care of
their kits.  Breeders here in Sweden thought that maybe the angoras were
just a bit slow in maturing but we've had this problem for at least two
seasons now (with the same angoras involved).  Apparently the Norwegian
breeders managed to get the angora kits to survive mostly by putting them
with a short-haired jill who just had kits of her own.  That way she, of
course, took care of all of the kits, short-haired or not.
 
>For some reason some people in the US are resisting certain European
>imports.  Seems to be those that get one kind object to those that got a
>different kind.  There is a similar resistance from some Europeans to
>American ferrets going over there.  I don't understand at all.  Ferrets are
>ferrets.
 
This is not entirely true.  There *are* differences between for example the
Swedish bred ferret and the American bred ferret.  Not only in size but also
in temperament, their disposition to diseases like cancer and life-span.
 
Maria
[Posted in FML issue 1885]