Hi folks!
 
I'm a new subscriber - so if I'd like to apologize in advance if my question
has already been addressed.  I have three ferrets - two white tipped sables
from a farm in Kentucky, and a BEW that I rescued from a horrid pet store in
the middle of nowhere.  The BEW (Lulu) has the little ear tattoos, so I
suppose that she is a Marshall Farm ferret, and I have had her for close to
4 years.  The problem is that the animal is a walking example of why
inbreeding is so damaging.  A partial list of her problems includes:
 
1. Mouth too small for all of her teeth. When she was a juvenile, we had to
   have her lateral incisors removed in order to let her canines come in
   straight.  They are still a little crooked, and her bite is a little off
   (not too serious, and it doesn't affect her ability to eat).
 
2. Deformed back paws. The outer two toes on her back feet turn in, and she
   appears to have webbed toes (beyond the norm, let me assure you).
 
   Periodically, one of the nails on her outer digits snaps back to the
   nail base, and needs to be removed to prevent infection (a horrifically
   painful process involving pliers and a steely will).
 
3. Odd behavioural fits. There are certain people in the world that LuLu
   bites.  It's not a malicious act, and it's not a little love nip either -
   it's the hard, damaging bite of her polecat ancestors.  Once she decides
   that a person is bitable, there is no convincing her otherwise.  My
   mother is one of the bitable people, Lulu bit her the first time she saw
   her, and bit her the next time - after not seeing the woman for 2 solid
   years!  The odd thing is that she really likes my mother.  I can only
   assume that there is something (smell?) about some people that sets
   Lulu's darker side off.  Anyone else notice this behaviour in ferrets?
 
Lulu is a very pretty little animal, with a lovely white coat and silver
highlights.  I imagine that the breeder has tried to fix that trait, and the
others may have come along for the ride.  Any comment out there?  She is the
most loyal and affectionate of my brood, but I can't take her out in public
for fear that she will bite someone - or worse - someone's kid!  I was just
wondering if I was alone....TIA,
 
Gwen M. Daley
[log in to unmask]
Department of Geological Sciences
VPI & SU
Blacksburg, Virginia 24061-0420
[Posted in FML issue 1468]