Ferret colours

Ferrets have a wide variety of colours and shades, the most common being the following:

The base color as head, shoulders, legs and tail is not taken into account but the rest of the body:

Albino Black, Black sable, Champagne, Chocolate, Canela, Black-eyed white not albino, Sable, Silver, Tricolor

Color pattern:

Standard: appreciable difference, but low 10-20% between the points of color that define the base color and the rest of the body.
The Siamese color point: the difference between the points of color and the rest of the body greater than 20%.
Roan or Marbling: 50-60% of any color and 40-50% white, not color-defined points.

Solid or uniform color without distinction between different parts of the body, Marks or white color patterns:
Mitts: At least one of the legs white.
Blaze: continuous white line from the nose to the chest.
Bib: white spot on chest.
Tip: Tip of tail white

Panda: white hair across the head to the shoulders slightly marked mask is allowed with white feet, bib and sometimes the tip of the tail is also white.

White ferrets were favoured in the Middle Ages because they were easily seen in areas of dense undergrowth, and ownership was reserved for those earning more than 40 shillings a year a considerable sum back then.

The Lady with an Ermine a painting by Leonardo Da Vinci, a ferret is not a proper ermine Mustela erminea, because at that time the name was used to determine the color fo the animal and not for a particular animal species. Similarly, the portrait of Queen Elizabeth with Ermine depicts Elizabeth I of England with a ferret-pet.

Waardenburg syndrome

Ferrets with stripes or all white head flares, pandas can carry a congenital defect known as Waardenburg syndrome. This syndrome causes, among other things, a distortion in the cranial vault, which expands and produces white markings of the head, but also a partial or total deafness.

It is estimated that up to 75% of ferrets with visible signs of the syndrome are deaf. Besides this, the cranial deformation also causes a high number of stillborn pups and a case of cleft palate. Because of this, many carers do not breed ferrets with symptoms of Waardenburg syndrome.