>From:    "Lorraine M. Thompson" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: rusty yellow tail on a silver mitt
>His body color is good except for that rusty yellow tail.
 
Coat discoloration can come from food - chicken fat in Totally Ferret for
example.  Dye in cheaper foods can lead to red or yellow ferrets.  Natural
oils but that is usually much more noticible in whole males.
 
>From:    Susan Barnes <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Fur Color Change-Acceptance
>Now over the last few weeks her coat which was a brown color on the tips
>and a light color base, now her top coat which was brown is starting to
>turn white--her head is alread completely white.
 
Most ferrets have a lighter colored coat/pattern in the winter than in the
summer.  We had a summer blaze and winter panda before which is a similar
brown head in the summer, white head in the winter change.
 
There is also a pattern/marking called roaning that over time turns more and
more of a ferrets coat to white.  It is the pattern that on top of the black
mitt color leads to what some standards call heavy, medium and light silvers.
 
>From:    Lee McKee <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: California politics
 
This is probably a reasonable suggestion.  The California legalization
efforts have concentrated so much on Republicans to our knowledge that the
Democrats could see this as a partisan issue.  Approaching candidates of
both parties and trying for a bi-partisan sponsorship of any legislation
will almost have to help.
 
>From:    Jim Young <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Legalize it ?
 
This was a well written post and I want to respond, not as a flame but as a
rebuttal.  NZ does have problems with imported mustelids.  The US does not
despite hundreds of years of importation.  Ferrets were legal for many years
in California and feral colonies did not appear then.  Bob Church has
written well researched posts stating why ferrets won't be able to make a
niche for themselves in California.  Here in the US we have problems with
other imports such as rats, starlings and English sparrows because they
could fit into a niche.  Feral dogs and cats are found here because we in
our infinite wisdom virtually eliminated most of the predators that would
have filled the niche they fit in here such as wolves and bobcats.  Ferrets
are unable to compete with the American weasels and mink in the wild.
American mink in fact are replacing the polecat/feral ferret populations in
Europe.
 
>From:    Karri Knutson <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Hobs??
>I was wondering if Hobs got along with the nuetered ferrets?  In the
>future, much furhter future I would like to breed ferrets, and I was
>thinking that if I got another ferret it could be a hob, that way I could
>get the larger size and maybe use him as a stud.
 
Whole males need to be kept separate from all other ferrets while in rut.
They might get along with other males - whole or altered - while not in rut.
Most breeders have more hobs than they need so don't go out to stud with a
hob someone who doesn't breed keeps.  I would advise not keeping a whole hob
until you are ready to breed.  You also don't really want to smell a whole
hob in rut.  Stinky smelly stained ugly but still cuddly.
 
Breeding ferrets is not evil or wrong despite what some might say.  If it
wasn't for hobby breeders we'd only have Marshall Farms ferrets.  I'd
recommend getting a unaltered male and altering him later to get a larger
male.  We've placed some older ferrets with people who wanted the larger
males and we've placed kits that because they were altered late grew into
large hobs before being altered.  Trust us that these late alter hobs can be
as large as whole hobs.  We have particularly large hobs and the altered
hobs people have gotten from us stay quite large.
 
bill and diane killian
[Posted in FML issue 1753]