As is becoming more and more obvious, far too few breeders, large or small,
are keeping HEALTH and LONGEVITY RECORDS on parents, sibs, grandparents,
aunts and uncles of all of our treasured ferrets.  These will likely never
be available from the farms (though who knows...), but they are things
which SHOULD be considered a NORM for private breeders.  Another thing that
SHOULD be a norm is that fancy lines should NOT have any whole ferrets or
sperm leaving the origin until these are proven over MULTIPLE GENERATIONS
to not have shortened lives, or any health or safety problems.  If any of
the neutered ones leave then the breeder still needs to stay in touch and
keep such records for the missing ones.  Looks mean absolutely NOTHING in
relation to health or life span, ditto awards.  Many a beauty queen has
expired in youth.  You have every right to DEMAND such records from
breeders BEFORE you consider adding a ferret, and that demand may the only
thing which will get some breeders to be more careful in terms of health
and longevity.  Kudos to those special breeders who already follow these
logical precautions.  HEALTH and LONG LIFE FIRST!
[Posted in FML issue 3126]