>We've seen no reason to think that other than deafness (which can cause >problems) there is any serious health issue associated with Waardenburg >gene. But it should be a simple matter of checking up with the research >done on other species that also have this gene (such as humans) Just as a note, in case anyone else has known a similar ferret: we took in a tiny little baby Waardenburg (classic coloring, too--more-or-less panda, white feet, white tip to the tail, heavy silver otherwise) who was not only deaf but blind as well. He was somewhere in the vicinity of 8-9 weeks old, and never made it to 10 weeks. There were no obvious causes of death; we suspect his heart just wasn't made right. It was very sad. Unless others have had similar experiences with other ferrets carrying this gene, I wouldn't think it was anything other than multiple birth defects or something similar. Jen and the Crazy Business [Posted in FML issue 2841]