From:
Mohr
Date: 2003-02-14 00:30:23 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] RE: Blaze and deafness ??
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-Id: <5.1.1.6.0.20030213182950.00bc4b08@pop.central.cox.net>
Sukie wrote:
>Question: someone mentioned a panda becoming a head blaze. Did you mean
>the reverse? A panda lacks the pigmentation over a wide area and since
>the cells are unable to make pigment throughout life from genotypic causes
>so by definition I can't see how a true panda could become a blaze because
>those cells would not later make pigment. I wonder if there can be
>phenotypic (non-genetic) situation which can reduce pigment output and if
>that is what you saw. In that case it could be imagined that a ferret
>which lacked pigment on the head might later be able to produce pigment
>over more of the head.
Hmm, I must have misspoken, then. Gabrielle did have what I thought were
panda markings when I got her, but apparently not what would be really
considered "true" panda. She has been getting steadily lighter in color as
she has gotten older. She has always had a white bib on her throat, white
toes on all four feet, and white "knee" patches on her back legs, but along
with the steady lightening of her coat (which has diminished these features
by making the rest of her coat more the color of her white markings) she
also developed a white blaze pretty early on in her adult life that she did
not originally have as a kit.
-Natasha