What are the genetics and history of ferret coloration?
By Bob Church: I am not sure of the exact genetics of ferret coloration, but I would expect fur coloration to be carried in 3 or more places. It would require a minimum of three different locations to explain the existing main colorations; sable, panda, and cinnamon. Some breeders will surely object to this simplification, but from what I’ve seen and read, all other “breeds” are in fact either variations or combinations of these three, excluding the albinos of course. Personally, I think fur coloration may turn out to be carried on even more than three locations, perhaps as many as five, but the extra locations are either close to one or more of the other locations so become linked to nearby traits. Which is why some colorations exhibit a high incidence of deafness or lowered mental abilities. Occasionally, because of cross-overs or whatever, they throw off expectations and you get a different look than expected. (OK, I admit I did some nasty math to get to the figure of three location
