>Another question about descenting: Is it harmful to the health of the
>ferret?  In some parts of Europe it is illegal to descent them.
 
Hi Shron,
 
Over here is Australia it is illegal to have a ferret descented.  The
reason behind not descenting is because it is believed that it does very
little for the overall smell of the ferret as you are still leaving the
glands on the heads.  So it is not believed to be necessary to descent
ferrets as it doesn't really change anything so why put the ferret
through it??.
 
I got Ollie desexed about a month ago and just before that (he's 8 months
old) he's coat had gone yellow underneath and he didn't smell very nice
at all.  Within the last month he's gone back to normal - white fluff
underneath and basically no smell.
 
So I will pose this question to add the Shrons' - is descenting even
necessary?????
 
One other thing I have noticed, we seem to have a lot less serious
medical problems in our ferrets over here.  Could this be because of the
fact that we have no major company pumping kits out all year, our ferrets
we get from breeders and only at spring/summer time.
 
What do others think?
 
Danni & Ollie
[Posted in FML issue 4229]