Hello,
I made an interesting discovering on the subject of scratching fits
 
Last fall I plucked 3 of my 4 ferrets of almost all of their shedding
fur.  My 4th was being less than cooperative so I let her keep a bit
more of her coat than the others.
 
2 observations
 
My heavily plucked furballs developed the most amazing winter coats--very
lush and uniform
 
My least plucked went through that almost ugly new coat transition phase
 
But most importantly----the heavily plucked 3 have next to no freak out
scratching episodes, truly as a matter of fact my one guy Ferris was so
good about my plucking him, he almost lost his entire summer coat and
he never has the scratches, it is very interesting.
 
where as the 4th is constantly at her coat.  So I have decided (for
me anyway) that there is a real connection between loss of old coat
(spring/fall) & growth of new in terms of the intense scratches.
 
Mary Ann
[Posted in FML issue 4404]