The statement I was told was that they stopped used fancies AS breeders not that they don't have fancy kits arise. Since the breeding of fancies in the past was so common all over the U.S., beginning with private breeders and at least smaller farm which had small appearance directed breeding projects (but mostly with private breeders), even many ferrets who do not look fancy can easily have hidden genes, which means that a number of fancy kits can be born even to those breeder ferrets who not look fancy. In such a case the proportion can become quite stable in the population, and the rate of fancies born may not be able to be gotten back down to the level of the past. It can be easier to create a shift in the proportion of specific alleles than it is to undo it when those alleles can be hidden due to variable expression, recessive nature, or both. Hope that you understand now that "breeding" in this case refers to using the fancies as breeders themselves, not to the fancies which are born due to hidden alleles. I do not know if this is the case in relation to there breeding programs but the person who told me has a strong history of being reliable, and genetically it is easy enough to know why fancies would continue being born even if they are changing their practises. If there is validity in the logical-sounding idea of Danee's that the more such mutated alleles an individual has, the more chance there is for health problems than using only ones that are not overtly fancies as breeders, then that might explain some discrepancies which had been noted. There are multiple genetic locations known in mammals for the neural crest mutations we'd been discussing, so a ferret bred from pandas or blazes or a combo (each of whom appear to be dealing with KITT, WS, and/or at least one other neural crest type of mutation) could hypothetically carry a hefty number of such mutations should the multiple loci aspect apply to ferrets as well. If so, then breeding from ferrets who at least have standard markings could hypothetically reduce the number with possible serious health or longevity consequences compared to using pandas or blazes as breeders. I find the notes that albinos seem to have the hardest time selling in shops in so many locations to be interesting even though some areas have fancies sell first and others have standards sell first. There is a store around here which seems to mostly purchase chocolates with standard markings or minimal spotting, and another which tends toward darker ones. It seems that stores, distributors, or both can do a certain amount of choosing when they prefer. [Posted in FML issue 4068]