Sorry to come in on this conversation so late. I saw yester-years cinnamon ferrets (dark auburn or red ferrets) through out the 80's. Most originated from the Northeast and their large farms. For a while, Path Valley had a great deal of them. Our good friends who owned a few pet stores and sold ferrets thought they were gorgeous and loved getting them in. However, a major problem became quite apparent. A good deal of them were ill tempered. I can best describe them as being aggressive AND seemed to also be like a neurological biter .... it was a double whammy. Food aggression was a major issue. Biting could be purposeful when they got into a "mode". However, when they were being sweet, as soon as you overstimed them with play it was like something would snap. They'd bite whatever was near them and hang on. It was very peculiar. We "went through" many of them because the pet store owners called us whenever they got a baby in that had any issues to work on or if a ferret had sat at the store for more than a couple weeks so they had a nice home to visit during days that they were closed. There were two babies in particular .. that never did get better. I returned with them many weeks later and told my friend that I saw no hint of improvement (or I would have kept on trying). I have no idea what he ever did with them at that point. He was a great animal lover, and I trusted him so that I never worried about it to tell you the truth. During the late eighties early nineties we didn't see very many. Then by mid nineties none. Since I'm "old school", it still irks me to this day that ferret people and/or breeders renamed yesterdays Butterscothes to Cinnamon's. We called what you'd consider today's cinnamon, butterscotches. They were around in the old days too, but little less orangey most of the time. The old generation butterscotches were bright gold with tan or chocolaty points. The undercoat was a gorgeous cream color. Just like a Worthington's. I cannot tell you how gorgeous they were. They were like the most golden, creamy rich cinnamon today that you can think of. See for me, I feel like someone just randomly said one day, "I dont like the name butterscotch for these guys anymore... hmm .. there are no more cinnamon's around .... hey lets just call these cinnamon's from now on". It's like what?? Today's cinnamon are not cinnamon colored at all. Cinnamon is a dark reddish brown. Like ... yester-years cinnamon ferrets.! Lol. Anyway, I feel like it was far too coincidental that the dark auburn (Cinnamon) ferrets just up and dissappeared for the most part. I have to wonder if my area was not the only one seeing the behavioral issues and if pet stores had to complain because they could not sell them. I don't know. Wolfy [Posted in FML 6675]