This reply is in regards to Urban Fredriksson's question about where angora
ferrets originated.
 
Urban, as I assume you already know, the angora ferrets originated from
Scandinavia. Our breeder in Scandinavia has been working with angora ferrets
since 1982.
 
Their beautiful long fur and their calm temperament is what makes these
ferrets very attractive as pets.  They have not arrived from polecats, I
know of several attempts from breeders who have tried to mix ferrets with
polecats, this is a big misstake.  You will end up with a "ferret" with
extremly bad temperament, and that is very agressive.  You will need thick
gloves to handle a "ferret" like that.  Sometimes breeders try to mix
polecats with ferrets to get a darker ferret, but as mentioned before, it is
not a good choice for breeding dark ferrets.
 
Our breeder has been a professional breeder since 1982, and before that his
dad and grandfather have been breeding ferrets since 1947.  Thru very
selective breeding, and a huge geene-pool he has been able to breed the
angora ferrets that are now beeing sold here in the USA.  He is currenly
working on breeding a type of ferret that has a blue tone to its fur, and
also a ferret with a very nice redish tone.  We hope to introduce these
ferrets to the US market within a couple of years.
 
Lars Eriksson
Quality Ferrets Inc.
 
http://erau.db.erau.edu/~erikssol/ferrets.html
 
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 1585]