I'd avoided the declawing issue until Linda asked why altering (spay/neuter) is different than declawing. I personally put the descenting in the category with declawing. ALTERING: A jill that is not neutered will go into season and at least 50% of the time die if not brought out through hormone injections or copulation with a whole or vazectomized hob. (Objects such as thermometers can be used inplace of the hob but this is not recommended as a usually technique as injury can result from penetrating too deeply.) The estrus cycle is rather hard on a jill as a false pregnancy with drastic weight gain and loss, hair loss and emotional upheavals occurs. Some jills even get very irritable to their human friends - down right vicious at times while going through the false pregnancy and the end of it which would simulate birth of the kits. This makes spaying a female a health issue. A Spayed female will not have the drastic hormonally induced problems that a whole jill will. The medical disadvantages are that if done too early they wouldn't develop fully. This is why we advocate late spay as close to a year as possible. A hob that is not neutered will go into rut. His hormones will play nasty tricks on him that are designed to aid in the reproduction of kits but aren't necessarily good for the hob. As long as he is in rut he will suffer severe weight loss. He will become more aggressive to other ferrets - he will have to be kept caged alone the whole time he isn't actually breeding with a jill in estrus. He will bathe himself in his own urine and develop dark stains on his fur particulary around his groin, eyes and neck. He will probably still be his sweet self to people. Neutering is also beneficial medically to hobs since it would prevent the weight loss and psychologically as it would keep him from having to be isolated so much. The medical disadvantages are about the same as for females. Their might be some other medical problems associated with the spay/neuter but I am not aware of them in any detail. DESCENTING: Descenting a ferret has no medical advantages except in the case of infection or clogging of the gland. Cosmetically the normally rare expression of a scent gland couldn't occur. Medical disadvantages are possibilities of damaging the muscles around the anus which might lead to a prolapsed rectum. Their is also the removal of one line of defense for a ferret that might be attacked by a larger animal. I've been led to believe that late descenting (when accompanying a late alter) is more traumatic than an early descenting but I have no evidence. We feel that the extremely minimal gain in aroma does not justify the removal of a ferrets defenses or the possible injury through surgery. Their are cases where a medical removal of infected or damaged glands would be advised. DECLAWING: Advantages are a lessening of the destructiveness of digging. No more. Disadvantages are removal of a primary ferret defense. I would suspect but can not prove a balancing problem. A ferret without claws is more likely to slip and injure itself falling off of any thing it chooses to climb. We feel the proper way to deal with ferret claws is clipping with nail clippers (we prefer human toenail clippers) and filing the sharp edges with an emery board. Carpet diggin is not a problem at our house but could be eliminated with the carpet protectors in the places a ferret would dig. We can think of NO CASE that would justify the removal of all of a ferrets claws. Injuries might forace the need for some level of amputation but that is a medical response not operation done before an injury. bill and diane killian zen and the art of ferrets [Posted in FML issue 1364]