>What seemed more closely aligned in my observations (note the
>qualifiers) was that a number of fancy-coat fur fitch wound up in the
>pet stock breeding pools and those fancies were preferentially bred so
>that their genes wound up in a lot of the population.  One reason that I
>think this is a serious component is because folks have been sending me
>death ages for blaze and panda ferrets for some time now years -- (Note
>that this is not a well designed sampling method so could easily be off),
>and while there are some of those who make it into normal old ages or 7
>or 8 years old there appears to be a huge number who just don't make it
>to normal old age, let alone old-old.  I think that an "appearance first"
>mentality has damaged the viability of the pet stock in North America and
>that we all need to be asking breeders for health and longevity records
>when acquiring ferrets privately and simply walking out if those aren't
>supplied, and going preferentially to private breeders with such records
>when we aren't rescuing.
 
That's very interesting Sukie and bears looking into.  I like the idea of
asking for records.  I know when breeding rabits we had to provide 3
generations back, and if you were a member of the ARBA (Am.  Rabbit
Breeders Assn), we had to keep a breeding history on each rabbit.
 
Warmly ~
Mary
Herbalist
The Conley Farm - organic herbs
Online Classes ~ [log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 3955]