I am a relatively new ferret owner and have one 5 month old sable female
ferret.  She is such a delight and I can now appreciate all you other
"nutty" ferret owners passion.  (I dont mean that awfully but everyone here
seems to think Im nutty, so I guess Im proud of it).
 
Her name is Jaala and was 2.9pounds at the age of 3 1/2 months, and is in no
way obese or even plump.  I think she has finished most of her growing but
it drew my attention that she appeared to be different to a lot of American
ferrets and it appears this line of New Zealand ferrets is generally larger
than most domestic American ferrets.  I have done lots of "asking around"
(not very scientific, I know) to breeders and fellow ferret owners and it
appears that none!!!  of them have experienced adrenal diseases and the life
expectancy seems to be 8 - 12 years of age.
 
This, and the fact that we have feral ferrets (similar size to my one), has
led me to wonder if we have a hardier (I dare not say superior) line of
ferrets here.
 
I wonder if:
* our more natural country lifestyle
* a climate which allows us to keep them outside
* genetic influence from feral ferrets (survival of the fittest)
* general "harder" attitudes which includes breeding from only healthy
  animals with good genetic background
 
has led to a line of ferrets which are less likely to develop adrenal
diseases and perhaps other diseases which in turn may lengthen the life
span of a ferret.
 
It breaks my heart to hear about the thousands of ferrets which develop
adrenal diseases in America and cant help but wonder if a new focus upon
introducing new bloodlines/genes to the breedng programmes of domestic
ferrets could help decrease the prevalence of these such diseases.
 
As an aside about domestic ferrets hunting rabbits.  Jaala (who I brought at
6 weeks desexed and descented eek!!  from a breeder exporting domestic
ferrets) was fed the occasional bit of fresh rabbit carcuss.  She had been
submissive around 8 different cats, 4 different dogs, horses, pet rats,
chinchillas and every thing else she had ever met but when she met a rabbit
in a cage she lunged at the cage like she thought she fancied a meal of
rabbit which was at least 4 times her size!!  I wonder if she would survive
in the wild after all?
 
As another aside, how do they physically desex a 6 week old female ferret, I
was surprised to see no scar from any surgery but feel confident the
proceedure did take place.  Is it done internally?
 
Maree Clapham and Jaala
[Posted in FML issue 2212]