Message Number: YG13491 | New FHL Archives Search
From: Betty
Date: 2002-06-03 08:33:00 UTC
Subject: Re: The Food Issue

We had only one adrenal case in our group, and one other person also had
only one and both happened when they were 4-5 years of age.

With the one case we had a young ferret that was cared for by children
alone, and was apparently fed a high degree of candy and sweets which we
were able to determine was pretty close to the truth. She ended up with
multiple problems including her heart... she is the only ferret I have
ever had that had an ECG done. She also had what was called back then,
an islet cell tumor, otherwise known more commonly today as insulinoma.
She was one of the few who lasted only a couple of years with us. It was
a heartbreaking struggle. She came to us sick and I'm not surprised why.

I believe in the breeding factor... far too many people think they know
what their doing and that simply is not the case. Breeding of any
species has to be done carefully. Just look at the cattle industry. They
have scientists who guide the who's, what's and wherefore's. But even in
that industry you see people who feel they don't need any one telling
them how to breed their livelihood.

At the zoo where I worked, it was imperative that each animal had a
sample of DNA taken and sent to the main lab where a profiles were done
to aid in determining which animal was best to breed with another.
Bottlenecking, a term used to describe a weakening gene pool, comes from
breeding that is too close to the parental line and thus, weaknesses are
inherited and developed. We've already seen what breeding of other
animals has done when it comes to wanting special features in cats and
dogs. It has done nothing more than weaken them as a whole.

I'm leaning towards the breeding factor being above the viral
possibility that Sukie mentioned only because it is usually bad genes
that determine how healthy the animal will truly be. But then again, is
this a chicken or the egg scenario?

betty and her blur o'fur
for the love of ferrets