Excerpts from mail: 24-Feb-92 Ferret List Issue 216 by Ferret Mailing List@ferr >Date: Mon, 24 Feb 1992 17:38:32 -0500 >From: "Au Jennifer" <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: 20 Questions continued > >How do you know a female is fully in heat, when is the best time to breed? I >had a female donated to me and she's already in heat. [You should get a hold of "Ferrets" by Chuck and Fox Morton. Barron's, 1986. Covers this pretty well. The Morton's run one of the bigger ferret farms. Wendy Winsted's book (TFH) is not bad either.] A female is in heat when the external vagina is large and swollen. It will probably have a shiny discharge. The dischar brown or green. This would indicate an infection and is a strong counter-indication for breeding. The ferret must be in good health before it's bred. [And people should be aware of the dangers of having a female in heat for extended periods - they will often not come out by themselves without being bred or given HCG shots. There's a very high risk of aplastic anemia and death. I'd suggest, with a new jill already in heat, that your best bet would be to get her out of heat with HCG and wait for the next cycle.] >I also have a male that appears to be in season. Should I let them get >together or wait or what? A male is in heat when his testicles are fully descended and somewhat swollen. They get more agressive when in heat. Both the male and the female in heat will exude a stronger odor than normal, and are prone to "scenting" (I think it ought to be called "stinking"!) when excited or upset. They get excited or upset a lot more easily when in heat. I had a back bedroom that smelled like a skunk bordello for almost a year from trying to breed ferrets. >Next question-The female is an albino, the male is a sable. Every kit in the >male's litter was sable along with the dam. (Is that >the correct term for ferrets?) I don't know the color of the father (sire?). >Is it a pretty good guess that the kits from this cross will be sable >(heterogenous sables)? Does anyone know the genetics of color inheritence in >the ferret? The proper term for a female ferret (usually used for a "whole" ferret) is jill and the male a hob. Babies are called kits. Ferret genetics is a big money business and not much is published on it because the large breeding farms jealously guard their secrets. I've been interested in ferret genetics for years, but haven't been able to find out much at all about it. I do know that a sable/sable cross will occasionally throw an unusual color, but most of the time you end up with sables. A sable/albino cross is more likely to come up with some interesting variations. I think sable (or any of the dark colors) is dominant, but I'm not sure. [Sable is the "normal" colour. Albinos are some percentage of sable-sable crosses (just like humans ;-). Other exotic colours are far smaller percentages. The real trick is to *get* one of the funny colours, then try to perpetuate/accentuate it by selective breeding] >How common is false pregnancy? Any pointers on breeding would be >appreciated. Thanks. [Quite common. It's also rather interesting to see a ferret treat your fingers as her babies and keep dragging them under blankets or into her cage.] My friend's jill had two false pregnancies, both which ended in an infection. She was going to have her spayed, but the ferret got into some mouse poison and croaked. We gave the hob away to someone who got him neutered. Infections are very common in breeding jills. It's common that the new mother eat her babies. Unless a person is fairly knowledgable about ferrets, I usually recommend AGAINST trying to breed until you've owned ferrets for a while. There is little or no money to be had unless you set up a huge breeding farm like the 100 ferrets in [That ain't huge. I think I heard that the Morton farm produces 50,000/year] small cages routine that was described earlier. Breeding ferrets at breeding farms are not usually pet ferrets. The breeder doesn't usually have time to handle the ferrets. They have to be tame enough that you can take the babies away, have good genetics, and that's about it. Probably a better system for breeding ferrets would be a home setup where family pets are bred. But like I said, there isn't much money in it. Unless, of course, you are breeding for exotic colors and show winners. Then you can take them to ferret shows and win ribbons and sell them for large sums of money. My first introduction to a cinnamon ferret was at a ferret show. It was a truly spectacular specimen of a cinnamon hob, about 6 months old and almost as big as my cat! Its fur fluffed out fully two inches. Now THAT I would consider breeding for. As for other breeding tips, put the cage someplace quiet. Noise and disruption can cause unnecessary damage to the jill and the babies. I didn't let the male "room" with the female, but allowed supervised breeding efforts. The squealing, fighting, etc. was truly spectacular and frightening. [And *normal*. Our original vet, who specializes in exotics, was invited to watch once. He came away with quite a sense of awe. He kept saying "*Very* vigorous". Unfixed males in season will often treat any other ferret (except other unfixed males) as females in heat. Including fixed males. And unfixed males in season will fight.] It's not uncommon for the jill to need medical attention due to bites on the back of her neck after being bred. My experience wasn't that excessive, but she sure did have some red marks. The one breeder I talked to said that she's already had to take a jill to the vet for stitches. Sounds a bit violent to me! [One of the guidelines for breeding for temperment is to choose males that don't do too much damage to the females. Red marks okay. Stitches - find another male.] --Barb-- [Posted in FML issue 0217]