Thanks for the input on breeding and sweetness.  Someone, I forget who,
commented that if I took back every nippy kit I would end up with a whole
litter on my hands.  Now, understand that I would educate my prospective
parents to ridiculous extremes.  If, then, the nippiness of their/my kit
still upset them, why not take him back?  I don't want to go into ferret
breeding to get rich.  If I do it, I'll do it because I like ferrets and I
want to be proud of the animals that come out of my house.  Also, I'm not
talking about nippy kits.  Sebastian, the Prince of MarshallFarmlandia
himself, was a nippy kit.  Why, I remember wrapping myself in blankets like
a burrito trying to get a few minutes rest, and having him burrow in
nonetheless and nip me ruthlessly.  He never ever broke skin, though.
Mortimer is also a good natured sweet guy.  Not a bone of malice in his
body.  He did suffer from near fatal testosterone poisoning when we got
him...
 
However, our Mithy is another story (nose biter from previous post).  We
love her, and she has a good home with us for as long as she lives.  BUT!
She's a bad pet.  If I knew who bred and sold her, I'd call him and chew his
ear off.  I absolutely shudder to think of the catastrophes that might
result if she were left alone with a small, screeching child.
 
If I were to breed ferrets, I would want to breed all that is fine and noble
about ferret temperament into my kits.  I want people to be as delighted by
them as I was by my first ferret kit, Sebastian.  I want them to laugh when
he bites too hard and gently reprimand him.  Not handle with gloves, then
abandon in the woods.
 
That said, I probably won't have the spare time or money to actually breed
the little buttheads for a few years.
 
Also, one tiny comment on Marshall Farms.  Someone said that the only
defects noted are those that the kits have already when they leave the farm.
That's not precisely true.  Every Marshall Ferret comes with a guarantee and
a registration card.  If he suffers from a congenital defect detected within
one year of ownership, they will exchange him for a new ferret.  I know,
this doesn't help when you love the sick one, and it doesn't change their
breeding strategy.  But screening various lines for cancer susceptibility is
a herculean task.  In fact, I don't think you could even have a significant
effect on cancer rates in ferrets with traditional selective breeding
practices and ordinary record keeping.  The kind of technology needed to
save the ferret population from cancer is exactly the same kind of
technology we hope to use on the human population, namely, extremely
sophisticated molecular biological techniques (gene therapy and such).  It
is easy to select for a desired characteristic.  It is hard to select
against an obvious undesired characterisitc.  I don't know how you would
even begin to select against hereditary cancer susceptibility.  First you'd
have to sort out which have genetic predisposition and which do not (not all
cancers result from genetic predisposition).  Then you'd be haphazardly
culling hobs and jills everywhere to combat this, and in the end, probably
to no effect.
 
Why criticize Marshall Farms for doing something that no animal breeder in
the history of the world has done successfully?
 
(I owe a lot of you letters, and I'll get to them today or tomorrow.  Sorry.
I think I'll go home and look up that equation.  You can actually calculate
how long it would take to select OUT a characteristic from a population.  I
think it would surprise many of you.)
 
Bests,
Catherine Shaffer
[Posted in FML issue 1702]