From: jlsjlsjls	Date: 8th August 2015 03:11 (UTC)		(Other places)

Now you've just given me visions of ferrets armed with stolen needle tips for swords and lances and using them to threaten you into giving them treats and the freedom of the house. XD Though they might prefer the Heavy Metal tips for that purpose since they're solid steel (Northern Lights are solid aluminum; the Nickels are nickel-plated solid aluminum)

I've yet to lose a tip ... they live in their case when not in use and the in-use ones are screwed onto cables which have knitting attached so are very visible. If/when I splurge on Sigs I'll probably be tempted to buy a safe to keep 'em in. ;p

	From: libwitch	Date: 8th August 2015 13:49 (UTC)		(Other places)

LOl. that would be the next step (now they demand to be picked up, and then give us kisses, and then the minute we put themd own they run over and stare at the plate that we put their nightly treat on)

	From: jlsjlsjls	Date: 9th August 2015 15:51 (UTC)		(Other places)

Oh dear, they've figured out the concept of deliberately giving affection in expectation of payment in food. Which is likely how prostitution began in our species ... they haven't ever shown especial interest in red light bulbs of any kind, have they? ;p

	From: libwitch	Date: 10th August 2015 00:17 (UTC)		(Other places)

By nature, they like bright and shiny things. But I am pretty sure they are colorblind. =-)

	From: jlsjlsjls	Date: 10th August 2015 02:59 (UTC)		(Other places)

Quite a few carnivores that are mostly colourblind can see some reds. Just tried a quick Google to see if ferrets are in or out of that category and some sites say yes, some say no. And am currently feeling too lazy to go into the spare room and haul out my pair of two-ton scholarly mammal books to check.

Would be interesting to know if they see in the same way as achromatic humans who can see many brightnesses and contrasts that colourvisioned humans can't. But guess we'll never know (or at least not until the ferrets rule the world and publish their own scientific papers)

	From: libwitch	Date: 10th August 2015 03:13 (UTC)		(Other places)

To be fair, the vision issue with ferrets (I think) is just that it is generally bad -- they are very scent and noise orientated. Their vision, eh? This type of thing also means that just moving furniture around can lead to hours of amusement.

Domestic ferrets are most closely related to otters, and it appears some otters have been tested specifically for color-blindness and it turns out they can in fact, see some color.

Which means uh, my ferts could possibly be hookers -- but they would be very indiscriminate, apparently.

	From: jlsjlsjls	Date: 10th August 2015 03:45 (UTC)		(Other places)

Yeah, I saw that, despite the differences over degree or lack of colour vision, all sources I looked at agreed that ferrets can literally only see a couple of feet past their own noses and that not very well. ***GRIN*** And I sorta recall you mentioning a few messing-with-their-heads things based on that in the past. Konrad Lorenz mentions (in "King Solomon's Ring") a similar situation with water shrews he raised ... despite being virtually blnd they could race and leap 'round their quarters due to scent, whisker-touches, and memorization but move one rock slightly and their entire world went scarily askew until they managed to relearn the relative positions of it and everything else all over again.

But human achromatic vision being what it is: a whole world of brightnesses and contrasts the rest of us can't see because we can see colours, it's possible that the ferret love of shinies is a result of seeing in the same way

Ah well, if it turns out that you have indiscriminate hooker ferrets at least that means you don't have to buy them the most expensive treats to get kisses. ;-)