Q: What Causes ferrets fur color to change to a yellowish coloration?
A: Yellowing fur means either the ferret is on a poor diet (I mostly see kibble ferrets that are yellow in pics), too much baths (they excrete excessive oils to make up for them being stripped), or the ferret is extra oily, either due to hormones from being intact or being sick.
Here are some other causes of sudden color change in ferrets:
- Winter Shedding. Ferrets during their shed often give off more oils, hence the yellowish tinge to their coat markings. There is also more dead hair shed. Sables don’t show it as well, as they’ve got a dark overcoat and most people don’t notice this, but they too go golden. My intacts right now, have a gorgeous gold undercoat. The ‘binos have a dirty yellow coat. The yellow coloring is least noticeable in dark grey, black, pole, and brown ferrets.
- Young Age. All ferrets are born with grey fur. You should see your little ones true colours by about 5/6 weeks, depending on how stable the colours are. I know exactly what I will get because as far back as I can go they look, just like that. By the time you bring your little one home at 12 weeks his colour will be set.
- Sable Ferrets Aging. Darker brown chocolate or Sables will often “roan” out. Consider a red roan like us going gray. Some ferrets depending on their genetics will gray out faster and more completely than others.
- Silver Ferrets Aging. Silvers especially go through drastic changes. They can end up looking like DEWs as they get older, losing the silver fur entirely or some silvers go DEW for a season and then return to normal coloring with then ext. My little silver went all salt and pepper (white and grey) on me, except for her tail right now. That’s still dark grey, and she’s got a bit of a dorsal stripe thing going on. Her entire body sans her head used to be the same color as her tail until recently.
- Hormone Changes. As male ferrets age, their hormones increase, making their hair more yellow and oily. Intact – and to a lesser extent fixed – hobs fur will change color in the spring, starting in February, during mating season.
- Adrenal Disease. While some ferrets are naturally yellow around the tail, head, neck, and ears, Adrenal disease causes an orange tint to appear in the fur.
- Diet Changes. Changing from a kibble to a raw, natural diet will make a yellowed ferret’s fur snow white again in a matter of months. However, too much chicken in a raw diet will make their white guard hairs yellow again, due the high chicken fat content. Others theorize that the yellow food dye coloring to make chicken look more appealing causes yellowing fur.
- Your Ferret Has Gone Deaf. A sudden change to a “panda” coloration – Blue eyes, Grey and Silver coloration, with white paws and a distinctive white stripe on the head generally indicates the animal has developed waardenburgs syndrome, and has gone deaf. If your ferret’s fur suddenly changed to this “panda” color, get him to the vet for a hearing test.
Which Color Is Healthiest?
The text book claims the healthiest ferrets are the ones that closest resemble what they’re were originally….dark sables or poley coloured. the only other ‘naturally’ occurring colour is albino. The fancy colours (cinnamons, champagnes, silvers), markings, blazes, pandas, milk toes, chest markings….all these go to create a less healthy ferret.
The farm breeders don’t care. Many of the US breeders are coming to realize that this is indeed an issue and are starting to move and clean up their lines.
Unfortunately, the public aren’t as knowledgeable and they snap up the silvers, DEW’s, pandas colors and then discover that not only does their coat change colors due to seasons, but their little furfriends become ill at very early ages.