Nothing has hit us harder than the news about our good friend Bob Rudich.
Rudy-Bob.  Rudy the Ferlospher.  As a living tribute to our friend we've
elected to keep a little sable mitt mutt kit about 6 weeks old that came
into our shelter.  This sad luck, young kit mutt seems to fit Rudy more than
any other ferret we could think of.  OUr heart goes out to Annie and the
ferrets.  He will truly be missed.
 
>From:    Dave Sweet <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: butt dragging...and all that stuff
 
Sorry we thought others would answer that...
 
DEW is Dark eyed white.  A ferret that is all or mostly white with usually
blue eyes that show as dark ruby to almost black.
 
>From:    George Parker <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: St Louis zoo.... +  feral ferrets
 
Oh Hullo!  Always nice to hear from friends...
 
YEs polecats are solitary.  Ferrets are sort of as well.  They get along
well with those they consider family but not always with outsiders.
 
And so.... is the partial poley we got from you a partial "wild" or not?
This was indirectly through Sue to Glenna to us... (Okay getting into a
personal note I guess...) But regardless this hob is fair better tempered
than the descendants of James McKay's Peter Polecat that made it to this
country.
 
>I agree that from a distance mink could be mistaken for ferrets but they
>are not larger or heavier as she states - at least they arn't here - but
>mink do not act at all like ferrets .
 
Are you referring to European mink, American mink or domesticated American
mink?  The wild American mink around us are similar sized to ferrets but the
domesticated ranch mink are larger and heavier.  The larger size was deisred
and bred for to get a larger pelt for the fur trade.  Other than that we
agree fully on the "personalities" of mink.
 
>From:    "Ilena E. Ayala" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: MF lab ferret ad
>I was wondering if anyone could comment on whether MF ferrets tend to be
>smaller than other suppliers?
 
Our understanding of the size comments was ferrets as compared to other
animals such as pigs that have a similar role in lab testing.  In the past
several years based we suspect largely on the work of Dr Bell while she was
at MF the size of the MF ferrets increased as well as the quality of their
structures.  There seems to have been a bit of a slip lately which could
have been caused by the creeping up of the shipment and altering date.  That
is conjecture of course.
 
>I'm also wondering if they breed two groups of ferrets, one for labs and
>one for the pet industry, or if they are all 'interchangable'.
 
We've gotten the impression that they are pretty much interchangeable.
 
bill and diane killian
zen and the art of ferrets
http://www.zenferret.com/
mailto:[log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 2002]