>15. The suspicion that ferrets suffer genetic disorders caused by
>    inbreeding is probably attributable to:
>C) Hobby breeders looking for unusual coloration or increased body size.
>Correct.  There is a significant correlation between hobby breeders,
>fancy breeds and genetic disorders.
 
Yep.  Right on the mark, Bob!  I have also encountered, read, met, or
heard about ones who had medical problems associated with genetically
very short tails (some vets' posts on the FHL), unusually long or dense
fur (dwarfism which was very painful for her), short legs (ditto), short
faces (ditto, and others who did not have dwarfism but did have jaws too
small for their dental arrays so they erupted teeth into their palates or
badly and painfully in other ways), and possibly some other things I
can't recall off-hand.  Oh, and I knew a line that had to be culled that
strong non-bilateral head coloration which also had defects of the aorta,
and have heard and read of multiple lines where folks purposely bred ones
who got juvenile cataracts because they liked the coloration.
 
We have had two badly deformed ones from one of the farms (NOT MF)
because that farm on and off has had appearance projects to try to get
new looks as a sales approach, but I have not heard of them doing that
for some time now.  I do know that I was told by someone in the know at
MF years ago that they had decided to not breed the pandas and blazes
themselves.  (One point which Danee brought up recently on the FHL is
that she thinks that pandas and blazes that come from normal markings
seem to be healthier than those bred from pandas and blazes, and this has
hypotheses attached which make sense, of course, esp.  not getting a
double dose of a potentially dangerous allele and not getting potentially
dangerous alleles in multiple loci since their are multiple routes to
KITT, WS, etc.) Since I haven't heard of that other farm doing appearance
projects in a while perhaps they got burned enough due to it to learn
economically.  As you point out, it is not in a farm's best economic
interests to have bad breeding practises so the ones who are in that to
stay learn that.
 
I hope that no one jumps on you about your answer.  You are right and
that is that.
 
Health and longevity first!
 
>E) A misunderstanding of the diseases of old age.  Correct.  The
>majority of ferret diseases manifest themselves in ferrets older than 3
>or 4 years of age; the upper end of wild polecat lifespan.  ALL species
>have a suite of diseases that reveal themselves in old age, ferrets
>being no exception.
 
Boy, is that ever true!
 
I've always found that the mentions of early adrenal growths happened
very separate from the mentions of adrenal growths for older ferrets (and
happened decently later) but why is of course something that remains
hypothetical so far no matter what hypothesis/hypotheses a person
(including me) prefers.  The point, though, is that the early ones
happened later and separately.
 
>C) A plethora of conjectural statements forming a domestication
>mythology.  Correct.  Few ideas have delayed the investigation of
>ferret domestication as much as the idea it was done by Egyptians.
 
Didn't that begin because someone wrote a book and confused an ancient
Egyptian drawing of a mongoose with a ferret?  I have a vague
recollection of that.
[Posted in FML issue 4063]