Hi guys,
 
The last post yesterday about winter coats--yikes!  My MF ferrets haven't
grown nice coats, either, I've been wondering about it, but until Minta's
post I never made an MF connection.
 
I've got 5 ferrets in my home group.  The 3 non-MF ferrets all have thick,
gorgeous winter coats.  This is a first for BB and Uno who came to me two
summers ago very neglected, and when they didn't grow nice coats last year
I thought it might be because they're nutrition had been so poor for so
long.  In fact Uno, who is a marked DEW, always had a very ratty, shaggy,
uneven coat, longer than the other ferrets' but not pretty at all.
 
And then, overnight (I swear!) Uno grew this thick LONG beautiful
_butter-yellow_ coat, so gorgeous that I've half-though he might have some
angora his blood.  (Tho' I've never seen an angora, so I have no basis for
this thought)  He's always been the ferret I've showed off because he's so
sweet--not because he was ever pretty.  But wow, is he ever gorgeous now.
And BB's coat is thick and soft this year too, though not quite so dramatic
as Uno's.
 
Pepper, the alpha, (another marked DEW) grows a beautiful snow-white coat
every winter, with a thick white tail with a ring of black around the base.
Then every spring he loses all the hair on his tail.  He's about 3 year
old, and this happens every year.  I worry all summer about his naked tail,
watch for any adrenal patterns, use black-head cures, and then come fall
his tail fills out again.  He's definietely not angora, though, he's a
"bulldog" ferret with very short, stiff fur, where the guard hairs and the
undercoat are the same length.  In fact, I'm not even sure he _has_ guard
hairs--just a thick white coat, all the same length.
 
But the two MF ferrets in the group, Mort (my baby at 2 years old), and
Princess, show no noticeable coat change at all.  And my two MF shelter
ferrets, purchased together 3 years ago, haven't grown nice coats, either.
 
Everybody eats the same thing, a base of Eukanuba chicken and rice, with
Pro-Plan Turkey and Nurtro-Max mixed in.  Doesn't explain why Uno is yellow
and Pepper is white, and doesn't explain why some coats are nice and others
are not so nice.
 
So  of 7 ferrets, the 3 non-MF have gorgeous coats, the 4 MF do not have
gorgeous coats.
 
Interesting.
 
--Sheri M.
[Posted in FML issue 2514]