Well, for those interested, the stinky boys made it to Missouri just fine,
and are settleing in with the other 13.  It was instant kaos.  Just imagine
two uncut hobbs running at full tilt at any ferret in view.  And these guys
lock thier jaws, let me tell you.  I placed them in "In-plain-sight"
quarantine--in a cage so they can get accquainted with the others through
the cage bars, but unable to draw blood.  They have also started their shot
series.  I'll be sad to see "Tex" go.
 
I returned to Ca-Ca land almost immediately; the stroke my mother suffered
was somewhat nasty.  I've been getting her goat by calling her Popeye,
hoping she will get worked up and try harder.  We have to wait to see her
progress before any decisions can be made about long-term care, so I will be
stuck here for a while.  People in the northwest should not expect to see me
until July.  Sorry.
 
I have so much e-mail and such a hard time getting online (at present) that
personal answers are virually impossible (at present).  Because of an
incompatability between my brother's IBM and my Mac (I get this window that
says, "Your terminal is of the dumb variety, and is incompatable with this
system"), I've resorted to reading my mail via a Netscape connection, which
is slow and yeechy.  I can read, but answering is difficult.  When my laptop
is shipped out, the problem will evaporate, so be patient for return mail.
To get this posted, I shipped it to a friend with a compatable system, and
to whom I gave my password, and he telneted to my server, and posted it for
me.  Cool.
 
I was asked a question about mustelids that was very interesting.  Do all
members of the weasel family have masks?  (The weasel family includes
weasels, stoats, polecats, mink, and ferrets.) The answer, with
qualification, is yes.  Obviously, not all weasels have masks, but some do.
Californians living towards Bakersfield can often see long-tailed weasels
that have masks; the trait is quite common in that area and is probably one
reason why the Ca-Ca Fish and Game have a hard time distingishing between
ferrets and weasels (Real biologists have little problem, but
biobureaurocrats can't tell the difference between feral animal and a stray.
I tell them its like the difference between a burro and an ass...) I have
seen many mink sporting masks--it is often a slightly darker shade than the
rest of the fur so it is not always easily observable.  The tendency to have
masks is an ancestral trait in the subgenus Vison, and the expression is
dependent on macro and micro evolutionary pressures.  But all the species
within the subgenus carry the trait.  It may be strongly expressed in some
geographic groups, and rarely expressed in others, depending upon the
species.  Just remember, not all ferrets have masks either.
 
Another question concerned what I thought was a good time to neuter an
animal.  I have no desire to get into a Marshall Farms debate, but I tend to
think neutering is fine anytime after the adult size has been reached and
the growth-curve flattens out.  That is not to say that neutering at an
earlier age is necessarily harmful--to prove that you would need lots of
data relating to "N" instead of "n" populations.  I haven't been able to
find such published data, although I am sure that it does exist somewhere.
The bones of ferrets reach the adult size at about 9 months, give or take a
month, and the growth plates begin to turn into bone, so anytime after that
point cannot result in a "stunted ferret."
 
However, while bone size is allometrically related to the body mass of the
individual, it is also sex related.  Males are not only larger, but they
also have more body (i.e., muscle) mass in proportion to their skeletal size
than females.  And as any body builder knows, muscle mass is easily
influenced by steroid levels, such as testosterone.  Huge monster hobbs are
huge BECAUSE thay have all their goodies secretin' the magic poison, and
even if you wait until your boys are full-grown (so to speak) to get big
puppies to show off, once neutered, they will slowly slim down to a size
about what they would have been had you not waited until your house smelled
like a mink ranch.  The point is all neutered males, regardless of the time
of neutering, will become more feminine in body shape and proportions after
the deed is done.
 
Speaking from the physiological point of view, I hate to see any animal
neutered before it reaches the adult stage.  The problem is, in female
ferrets you run the risk of the little girls going into heat, making
neutering a no-no, if you wait until they are a year old.  But since the
adult size and physiology is reached by 8-9 months, and only the most
atypical female will enter heat prior to that period, you are realitively
safe to wait until then.  All my (nonadopted) females were neutered at about
11 months of age, and the males at about 14 months.
 
I have read one paper that suggested early neutering of males tended to make
them less aggressive than late-neutered males, but the number of individuals
studied was small, and no controls were in place to account for
environmental influences or conditioning.  Some of my sweetest boys are
late-neuters; besides, I still need to be convinced that chemically- induced
behaviors remain after the chemicals are gone.  (It's kind of like saying
that once you smoked pot, you will remain high for the rest of your life.
Now _that_ would be some righteous weed...Whoa, everything looks like a Maxx
poster...)
 
If you don't neuter your females, they will remain in heat, and will
generally die from infections, estrogen-induced anemia, or a combination of
both.  Unneutered males will fight, even to the death, and will work hard to
escape and set up "their" territory.  If you have a hobb older than a year
escape, they will wander for miles to find a new home, especially if other
unneutered males live in your house.  Neutered animals are healthier, live
longer, have a lower desire to escape/explore, cannot form feral colonies,
and are less aggressive towards each other.  They are also more playful
according to the study mentioned earlier.
 
I'll try to answer more questions soon. Val: I will call you this week
about shipping "Tex" south. He is soooo sweeeet. Stinky, but sweet.
 
Bob and the 14 Cool Kids and 1 visiting Texan.
[Posted in FML issue 1595]