Hi folks! I'm a new subscriber - so if I'd like to apologize in advance if my question has already been addressed. I have three ferrets - two white tipped sables from a farm in Kentucky, and a BEW that I rescued from a horrid pet store in the middle of nowhere. The BEW (Lulu) has the little ear tattoos, so I suppose that she is a Marshall Farm ferret, and I have had her for close to 4 years. The problem is that the animal is a walking example of why inbreeding is so damaging. A partial list of her problems includes: 1. Mouth too small for all of her teeth. When she was a juvenile, we had to have her lateral incisors removed in order to let her canines come in straight. They are still a little crooked, and her bite is a little off (not too serious, and it doesn't affect her ability to eat). 2. Deformed back paws. The outer two toes on her back feet turn in, and she appears to have webbed toes (beyond the norm, let me assure you). Periodically, one of the nails on her outer digits snaps back to the nail base, and needs to be removed to prevent infection (a horrifically painful process involving pliers and a steely will). 3. Odd behavioural fits. There are certain people in the world that LuLu bites. It's not a malicious act, and it's not a little love nip either - it's the hard, damaging bite of her polecat ancestors. Once she decides that a person is bitable, there is no convincing her otherwise. My mother is one of the bitable people, Lulu bit her the first time she saw her, and bit her the next time - after not seeing the woman for 2 solid years! The odd thing is that she really likes my mother. I can only assume that there is something (smell?) about some people that sets Lulu's darker side off. Anyone else notice this behaviour in ferrets? Lulu is a very pretty little animal, with a lovely white coat and silver highlights. I imagine that the breeder has tried to fix that trait, and the others may have come along for the ride. Any comment out there? She is the most loyal and affectionate of my brood, but I can't take her out in public for fear that she will bite someone - or worse - someone's kid! I was just wondering if I was alone....TIA, Gwen M. Daley [log in to unmask] Department of Geological Sciences VPI & SU Blacksburg, Virginia 24061-0420 [Posted in FML issue 1468]