albino fear

[Ideation 8,216]

What use is vision underground??? I got a jill that can hardly see the end of her nose but is one of the best grafters i have seen, works almost everyday in the season. Albino ferrets have been around a long time, they were mentioned in literature 800 years ago, and if they were that f****d up and you were breeding them together for 800 years we should have some really messed up ferrets. Also you get plenty poleys with albino blood in them. Although i admit their eye sight is worse.

Vision is no use underground , and you do get messed up ferrets mate. I've seen them with swaying heads and also waltzing ferrets, where they go round in circles, something genetically wrong with the inner ear I think, only seen these problems in albinos. I just get no pleasure in breeding defective animals.

 

 

That's my point mate, r.e whether the loss of vision is really a hindrance to a working ferret?

 

My other point was, with regard to albinos being 'defective', while i agree that they are more likely to become defective, it cannot be such a likely thing, as breeding albino ferrets together for 800 years on an island, it should be rife, there should be lots and lots of defective albinos everywhere, and there are not.

 

How many folk keep albinos and how many see these defects in their line?

 

and as i said, many albino ferrets have colored blood and vice versa, a poley (non wild) could come from a long line of albino to albino, that has had a poley mated in last generation, so there will be poley kits in the litter.

[supersam 64]

iv worked albino,s since i was a kid and i had only one that was blind in one eye.

even so he was a very good worker

[Kay 3,709]

Kept albino ferrets for years up until this year when sadly my old jill died and now ive just got 1 of her daughters left and 2 new kits i bought in this year and to be truthful that albino was the best ferret ive ever owned she worked brilliantly and was the tamest ive ever had, bck to the point neva owned an albino we any of the problems above and ive owned a good few

 

Same here have had lots of albino's over the years , cant say I have fond them to be any more pre disposed to anything than any other colour ferret to be honest

[Ideation 8,216]

Could it have anything to do with the fact that in the past there were less of them, and so they were inbred more?

[romany52 313]

What use is vision underground??? I got a jill that can hardly see the end of her nose but is one of the best grafters i have seen, works almost everyday in the season. Albino ferrets have been around a long time, they were mentioned in literature 800 years ago, and if they were that f****d up and you were breeding them together for 800 years we should have some really messed up ferrets. Also you get plenty poleys with albino blood in them. Although i admit their eye sight is worse.

Vision is no use underground , and you do get messed up ferrets mate. I've seen them with swaying heads and also waltzing ferrets, where they go round in circles, something genetically wrong with the inner ear I think, only seen these problems in albinos. I just get no pleasure in breeding defective animals.

 

 

That's my point mate, r.e whether the loss of vision is really a hindrance to a working ferret?

 

My other point was, with regard to albinos being 'defective', while i agree that they are more likely to become defective, it cannot be such a likely thing, as breeding albino ferrets together for 800 years on an island, it should be rife, there should be lots and lots of defective albinos everywhere, and there are not.

 

How many folk keep albinos and how many see these defects in their line?

 

and as i said, many albino ferrets have colored blood and vice versa, a poley (non wild) could come from a long line of albino to albino, that has had a poley mated in last generation, so there will be poley kits in the litter.

 

That's my point mate, r.e whether the loss of vision is really a hindrance to a working ferret?

 

When it's actually below ground it isn't, but what about the rest of the time, bit tight to suggest that so long as it works it doesn't matter if it's blind.

 

 

My other point was, with regard to albinos being 'defective', while i agree that they are more likely to become defective, it cannot be such a likely thing, as breeding albino ferrets together for 800 years on an island, it should be rife, there should be lots and lots of defective albinos everywhere, and there are not.

 

Not many strains been bred albino x albino for 800 yrs without the addition of polecat colour. Over the years many defective animals would have been culled and even today who would let it be known that their strain threw the odd defect.

 

and as i said, many albino ferrets have colored blood and vice versa, a poley (non wild) could come from a long line of albino to albino, that has had a poley mated in last generation, so there will be poley kits in the litter.

 

The said defects are associated with albinism so don't manifest themselves in polecat coloured ferrets even if they carry the albino gene, although such a ferret can carry and pass the defects to any albino offspring. By the way, I've seen the same defects in albino rabbits ,mice, rats and chipmunks.

[stealthy1 3,964]

I only have one albino, and it is thick

[supersam 64]

What use is vision underground??? I got a jill that can hardly see the end of her nose but is one of the best grafters i have seen, works almost everyday in the season. Albino ferrets have been around a long time, they were mentioned in literature 800 years ago, and if they were that f****d up and you were breeding them together for 800 years we should have some really messed up ferrets. Also you get plenty poleys with albino blood in them. Although i admit their eye sight is worse.

Vision is no use underground , and you do get messed up ferrets mate. I've seen them with swaying heads and also waltzing ferrets, where they go round in circles, something genetically wrong with the inner ear I think, only seen these problems in albinos. I just get no pleasure in breeding defective animals.

 

 

That's my point mate, r.e whether the loss of vision is really a hindrance to a working ferret?

 

My other point was, with regard to albinos being 'defective', while i agree that they are more likely to become defective, it cannot be such a likely thing, as breeding albino ferrets together for 800 years on an island, it should be rife, there should be lots and lots of defective albinos everywhere, and there are not.

 

How many folk keep albinos and how many see these defects in their line?

 

and as i said, many albino ferrets have colored blood and vice versa, a pole (non wild) could come from a long line of albino to albino, that has had a polymath in last generation, so there will be pulley kits in the litter.

 

That's my point mate, r.e whether the loss of vision is really a hindrance to a working ferret?

 

When it's actually below ground it isn't, but what about the rest of the time, bit tight to suggest that so long as it works it doesn't matter if it's blind.

 

 

My other point was, with regard to albinos being 'defective', while i agree that they are more likely to become defective, it cannot be such a likely thing, as breeding albino ferrets together for 800 years on an island, it should be rife, there should be lots and lots of defective albinos everywhere, and there are not.

 

Not many strains been bred albino x albino for 800 yrs without the addition of polecat colour. Over the years many defective animals would have been culled and even today who would let it be known that their strain threw the odd defect.

 

and as i said, many albino ferrets have colored blood and vice versa, a pulley (non wild) could come from a long line of albino to albino, that has had a pulley mated in last generation, so there will be pulley kits in the litter.

 

The said defects are associated with albinism so don't manifest themselves in polecat coloured ferrets even if they carry the albino gene, although such a ferret can carry and pass the defects to any albino offspring. By the way, I've seen the same defects in albino rabbits ,mice, rats and chipmunks.

is the ferret defective regarding its sight?

does the ferret work?

for me the more important question is the latter.

some name there ferrets and play with them like pets.

for Me i take care of my ferrets,have them frontlined,wormed and give them the best of grub.

i keep there hutch clean and there water bottles full but if it dont work then its not kept.

if its short sighted or blind or has eyes like a hawk means nothing to me.

they work on scent down them pitch black burrow,s where sight dont come into it.

think folk are reading to much into it or are putting ferret,s up on a pedestal.

once they work and can bolt rabbits for my lurchers and hawks is all i care about.

id prefer a blind hard working albino than a non working eagle eye poley any day the week.

[Karpman 44]

f**k just got me first ferter for a long time yeah you guessed it, albino proper nob he is too got another coming today can't soddin wait.

 

People read to much sometimes can find an answer that's suits anything on this shit hole called the internet.

 

Cheers

Karpman

[Jamie m 668]

Could it have anything to do with the fact that in the past there were less of them, and so they were inbred more?

Or could they be more common in the wild a d as soon as they leave the nest well there's allsorts waiting

[Tiercel 6,986]

Could it have anything to do with the fact that in the past there were less of them, and so they were inbred more?

 

Albino ferrets were quite common during the first half of the last centuary. It was only after the advent of mixie that the numbers went into drastic decline, as people got rid of them believing that the rabbit would never recover from the mixie. That went for polecat ferrets also.

 

In conciquence the ferret went into a steep decline in numbers, only being kept by a few as pets. However, once the rabbit started to make a comeback so the demand for the ferret grew. But with a drastically reduced gene pool it is inevatable that some inbreeding would have taken place. But how much inbreeding would it take to make the ferret manifest all the defects that romany52 describes.

 

I have kept albino ferrets for the last 50 years and have never had one with any of the defects he describes, perhaps I have been lucky?

 

TC

[max abell 196]

Same as above we keep up to 15 and have done for 30yrs had and still have all the colours eu polcat crosses etc never had any probs with albinos

my best worker i ever had was a albino

[romany52 313]

There is no getting away from the fact that albino animals are genetically less sound than normally coloured animals. My granddad chain smoked untipped fags all his life, lived to be 90 odd, doesn't prove smoking doesn't give you cancer. All I'm saying is that the defects are well documented and I've seen them myself, what you do with that information is up to you but just because you haven't seen something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. By the way ferrets with good eyesight work just as well in the dark as blind ferrets do, I don't get what people have got against ferrets that can see !

[Tiercel 6,986]

There is no getting away from the fact that albino animals are genetically less sound than normally coloured animals. My granddad chain smoked untipped fags all his life, lived to be 90 odd, doesn't prove smoking doesn't give you cancer. All I'm saying is that the defects are well documented and I've seen them myself, what you do with that information is up to you but just because you haven't seen something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. By the way ferrets with good eyesight work just as well in the dark as blind ferrets do, I don't get what people have got against ferrets that can see !

 

 

No one is denying that an animal with albinism, no matter what that animal is, is genetically different to normal animals. The main way that they are different genetically is that the animal is unable to produce melanin that gives the hair, skin, and eyes colour. This type of albinism is known as oculocutaneous albinism and yes it does affect the vision of the albino animal.

 

That said, there exists a possibility that the animal may have other defects, in reality while the possibility of these defects exist, they very rarely manifest themselves.

 

While the lack of vision may not be detrimental to how a ferret works or lives it's life out in it's cage, the truth is that in the wild they would have a high mortality rate due to their visibility.

 

No one has said as far as I have read that having good eyesight is detrimental to a ferrets working ability. In fact what I have read is that people have defended the fact that albinos have poor eyesight as not being detrimental to their working abilities.

 

TC

[fcuktheban 140]

There is no getting away from the fact that albino animals are genetically less sound than normally coloured animals. My granddad chain smoked untipped fags all his life, lived to be 90 odd, doesn't prove smoking doesn't give you cancer. All I'm saying is that the defects are well documented and I've seen them myself, what you do with that information is up to you but just because you haven't seen something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. By the way ferrets with good eyesight work just as well in the dark as blind ferrets do, I don't get what people have got against ferrets that can see !

 

 

No one is denying that an animal with albinism, no matter what that animal is, is genetically different to normal animals. The main way that they are different genetically is that the animal is unable to produce melanin that gives the hair, skin, and eyes colour. This type of albinism is known as oculocutaneous albinism and yes it does affect the vision of the albino animal.

 

That said, there exists a possibility that the animal may have other defects, in reality while the possibility of these defects exist, they very rarely manifest themselves.

 

While the lack of vision may not be detrimental to how a ferret works or lives it's life out in it's cage, the truth is that in the wild they would have a high mortality rate due to their visibility.

 

No one has said as far as I have read that having good eyesight is detrimental to a ferrets working ability. In fact what I have read is that people have defended the fact that albinos have poor eyesight as not being detrimental to their working abilities.

 

TC

 

 

I have just read through a few different studies on albino ferrets and the only other issue posted is they could be hard of hearing. In both cases it is not detrimental to it's hunting ability. I was more concerned when I read romany52's statement about them walking in circles. I haven't found any indication this is related to albinism so I'm not too bothered by the vision or hearing problems that "might" be present. So far my albinos react in the same manner as the poleys to sound and sight.

[romany52 313]

Still find it shocking that so long as it does the job people don't mind breeding deaf blind ferrets !