From:
sukiec@optonline.net
Date: 2005-09-15 22:40:31 UTC
Subject: RE: Orange tail in dew
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <2029384.1126824031960.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
It is not at all unusual for certain foods to dye ferret skin secretions and fur. This is especially true of some of the poorer quality foods and of diets where things like marigold petals (if memory serves) have been added. There was in fact in the past a breeder who falsely claimed to have red ferrets. Now, true red ferret fur does at times occur, as it also does in the European polecat in some parts of Britain, but that particular person was selling ferrets whose color had been diet manipulated in an unethical fashion. (BTW, I have not personally encountered a true bright red or auburn ferret in a great number of years, but I have known ones in the past. These are both far redder colorations than the cinnamon shade, and I have seen photos from a British mammalian pelt collection of a bright red polecat.)