Originally posted by luckies4me
Well what I meant is that if he's a Marshall Farms ferret he'd be neutered and descented...LOL. In actuality descenting a ferret has absolutely nothing to do with scent. They just remove the anal glands, not the glands that produce the musky scent. And you are right in regards to their surroundings having more to due with the smell than them being descented. I don't know, he just has such a pleasent smell to him.

What exactly do the rings mean? Can you explain more about that to me? Enlighten me. And yes, his coat is not the color is should be. Once I get new pictures you will see a difference already, as it's already starting to look more like it should.

Ya, I'm definitely worried about adrenal disease since he came from Marshall Farms and they neuter their ferrets way too early.
I'm just keeping my fingers crossed! I really gotta trim his nails again though. I didn't want to cut them too far the first time as his quick was grown out so far. I bet they never cut his finger nails.
Yeah I know thats what you ment but I just wanted to let you know that just because they are tatooed &/or from marshalls they are not always spayed/neutered or descented. I personally know about 15 people that have marshalls ferrets and out of their ferrets they have about 25 marshalls ferrets that were NOT neutered/spayed/descented.

Most of their smell comes from the oils in the coat. The more you bathe them the more oils they produce, therefore the more they smell. Foods that are high in fish protiens (like marshalls foods) not only make their feces smell worse they also make their bodies produce more oils therefore making them more stinky. They then pass this stink onto their bedding & surfaces.
The oils (and/or dirty living conditions) will also make their coats look more orangeish (kinda like your ferret).

There rings around their eyes are usually called hob rings because they are usually found around the eyes of hobs only (unaltered male ferrets). When they go into rut they produce more oils & certain oils in certain spots, eyes being one of the spots. They are rarely seen in altered ferrets & females and if they are it is usually the sign of some other problem possibly malnutrition.
They may be caused by the dirty conditions he was kept in and because of the food he was fed. They could also be cause by an incomplete neuter or early stages of adrenal disease. I would personally just watch him closely for any other symptoms. Give him a good bath if you haven't done so already and just wait.
The colors in his coat will stay the same until he sheds (which by the sounds of it beacuse he is starting to change colors he's probably starting to shed). We've rescued some nasty ferrets so bad that were BRIGHT ORANGE you could give them a thousand baths with the best shampoo & it won't work. It's something about their fur that holds scents & stains so easily.


Nails grow fast on most ferrets. Its a never ending job here. lol
Do you have ferretone? Thats the best stuff for nail clipping. Squirt a bit on their tummies & it keeps em' occupied. Its ferret crack. lol http://www.petblvd.com/cgi-bin/pb/EIO00407.html