Peter, you are forgetting that the very domestic breeding situations you mention have resulted in reduced lifespans for many and in common specific breed medical problems. For example, in general mutts are healthier and live longer. Some ferret breeders have already begun taking ferrets down that path to reduced health, reduced lifespans, increased handicaps, and increased infant mortality. Having a fancy appearance is NOT worth any of those results. I've seen a number of the ferrets with problems from directed breeding for appearance, and in the past when we could cope with the high related expenses much better my husband and I took in some of the ones who needed special care as a result. (In fact, one of them required 6 surgeries and was able to get 6 years before one of his GI malformations which could be corrected no further killed him; he was our almost $12,000 "free" ferret and he was completely worth the care.) Bob did a bang-up job with that post. He was right on the money that when people breed for appearance instead of health, longevity, and behavior they cause problems for ferrets. That is just what happened in way too many domestic breeds to the point where people even considered what are actually halved lifetimes in some cases to be "normal", or some medical problems to be "normal" just because they are "breed-normal". Why repeat mistakes just because they happened with other animals? There are those who will say that just because breeding for appearance is what too many breeders have done for the last 15+ years that it should be continued. They will say, "These ferrets are pretty, so why change our path?" It the path you are on will take those you love and you over a cliff then it makes sense to change the path. That is the situation here. If you want to read more on the medical problems associated with too many breeding programs in ferrets I advise reading past conversations in these three sites: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Genetics/ http://listserv.cuny.edu/archives/ferret-search.html http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/ People here love ferrets. It is not consistent with love to take actions that will hurt as many as breeding for appearance alone does. That said, I want to applaud those breeders who are setting the newer direction by keeping careful and very complete health and longevity records (no fair leaving off sick siblings and such), breeding for a combination of factors -- with health, longevity and behavior in the forefront -- and making their health and longevity records available to potential purchasers. There really are breeders who are doing this sort of thing and they have earned everyone's trust. (Yes, there will still be variation and not all of it will be good, but the chances of health and long life are greatly increased.) [Posted in FML issue 4678]