(Hi FML!! This is Elizabeth, daughter of the Bad Bone Bob Guy, once again
forced into abject slavery in order to borrow the car. Well, I also feel
really bad about what I did to dad's mail box. But dad's not mad at all,
and says mistakes are the basis of learning. Nornally I just roll my eyes
and go limp, but this time I just smiled and said thanks. Sorry to everyone
for the goof. EC)
Q: ...ferrets are so popular, do you think their prioces will go down?
A: I will resist any smartie remark here. I'm too good for it.
Yes, but I wish it wouldn't. I think $100 is more than a fair price for
such a wonderful pet, and understanding the pitfalls of breeding (although I
have *NO* interest in breeding) I think it is quite reasonable. More, I
think the price tends to lift ferrets out of the realm of impulse buying
(which still happens of course, but reduced compared to free or inexpensive
pets). I think most people who spend the bucks for a ferret really want it,
and care about what happens to it. No flames; notice I said most. There is
always the person who can afford anything and couldn't care less what
happened to it. I think-compared to dog, cats and bunnies-there are
proportionally *VERY FEW* ferrets that wind up in shelters, and I think
price has a lot to do with it.
My biggest fear is the price of a ferret will drop under $25, and the
shelters will become flooded with malnurished, sick, neglected, biting
ferrets. If that happens, and I'm not saying it will, the idea of losing
dozens of ferrets per year because of rabies testing will pale to the
prospect of losing thousands per years to euthanasia and neglect.
Right now, ferrets are in high demand, but I must get 3 or 4 letters a week
asking advice on ferret husbandry, which I *ALWAYS* advise against. I've
seen too many well-intentioned people buy expensive dogs with the idea that
they will breed them later to recoup some of the cost, only to see poorly
bred pups end up in bad homes, shelters, or worse. At the moment, you don't
see much of that right now, mainly because the demand is so high. But you
don't have to be a Wall Street economist to see the time when the market
will level, and prices drop.
I *like* the idea of ferret shows, although it will be a cold day in the
hades before I will enter one of my own. I'm not afraid of disease, or my
ferrets losing (impossible!); it just doesn't interest me. But I love
attending them, not just out of the love of making fun of the people who put
hats and clothes on their ferrets, but because they bind the ferret
community together in such a way that would be impossible on the internet.
I think ferret shows, even though they can make good people want to rip out
each other's throats, helps to bind the ferret community together.
I would love to see the hobby breeders forming a co-op, standarizing
breeding practices, suggesting fees, etc., more to protect the future as to
insure the present. OK, no club propaganda here, from *any* side. The four
categories of competence are 1) I am doing the job, 2) I can do the job, 3)
I can't do the job, and 4) I won't do the job. There is just not many clubs
in that second category, fewer in the first, and even less at the national
level. As my dad used to say, "Before the pig can make it to the pen, it
has to start walking."
Q: My ferret (she is 3) has eight small upper teeth between the two fangs.
Should I worry?
A: As a 18th century Quaker would say, "What, thee worry?"
I'm assuming you are talking about the upper incisors. Normally all
carnivores have a total of six upper incisors, with 6 on the bottom. Extra
teeth, called supernumerary teeth, are common in mustelids, and even more
common in ferrets. Absolutely not a problem. Sometimes you are missing a
few incisors; just as common and just as unimportant.
Having them doesn't mean the ferret is inbred, nor does it mean it is some
kind of mutant. Extra or missing teeth are commonly found in all families
of the Mammalia. Here's some trivia for you. The Opossum has 10 upper
incisors and 8 lower ones, which, when divided by two for each half of the
jaw, is expressed as 5I/4I (Baby teeth would be 5i/4i). Carnivores have
3I/3I, Primates have 2I/2I, rabbits and hares 2I/1I (the second one *behind*
the first), Rodentia 1I/1I, horses 3I/3I and cow and deer 0I/3I (You miss
points if you say the deer/cow has 8 incisors on the botton, because the
outer one is a incisiform canine; it looks and works like an incisor, but is
really a canine, and would be expressed as 0I:0-1C/3I:1C. The 0-1C means
sometimes its there, like the elk's eye tooth. I have a mule deer skull and
two white-tailed deer skulls with eye teeth).
I have never heard of any mammal with extra canines (other than when the
baby canines are being replaced by the adult ones). Sometimes a mammal will
have an extra premolar, and very very rarely an extra molar. Sometimes the
animal is very variable in the number of teeth of a specific type, like the
number of premolars in the black bear. Some people think humans are in the
process of losing the third molar (wisdom tooth), but others argue that it
functions as a back-up replacement tooth when the 1st molar wears down or is
lost.
Incisors are used by ferrets to grasp food, for grooming, and for the
wonderful smile you see after a really good bite to the thumb webbing.
Bob C and 20 MO Toothivores
[Posted in FML issue 2130]
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