Hi Debbie,
 
The first thing in ferret breeding is fit, long lived and healthy breeding
stock and making sure the jill is completely in season before she is
introduced to the male.  A jill not ready can get damaged by trying to
resist the male and or then have a false pregnancy or a small number of
surviving kits after some being stillborn.  Size and colour is then up to
you.  I do not like my males to go over 4.5 lb normally I breed for 3.5 lb
and jills are around half that.
 
The only time you know what colour the kits are going to be is when you
cross a true Albino to true Albino and they all will be Albino.  All
coloured ferrets are so debased colour wise these days you can only really
guess and hope you are going get what you are trying for.  With sable to
sable cross you have a good chance of all sables but you may not get even
one.  When you start going for specials like true black eyed whites the
fun really begins and sometimes only one BEW kit appears in the litter.
Although nearly any colour type is possible with a little research and
luck there seems to be health risks with some of the more exotic colour /
patterns.  Spontaneous throwbacks or spontaneous mutations like a BEW out
of a sable sable cross are worth killing for, I have only found 2 in the
last 2 years.
 
Chris Lloyd.            ICQ no.  44575318
Wessex Ferret Club      www.wfc.cwc.net
[Posted in FML issue 3473]