Teresa Scott wrote
>A breeder/shelter person let the kits starve to death.  She was trying
>to tell me that there was no way to save them since the jill did not
>produce milk.  I believe in breeding responsibly!  If you decide to
>breed a young jill, out of season, and she is not a good mom or gets an
>infection or produces no milk.  It is your responsibilty to SAVE THE
>BABIES!
 
As a former breeder, I can attest to the fact that saving newborn kits
when the mother's milk does not come in is a very difficult thing to do.
Even if you have a small enough nipple and have formula for them, they
are not easy to hand feed.  Kittens and puppies are much easier to save
under these circumstances.  Newborn kits usually will not take the
formula willingly, and if you try to force it, they will aspirate on the
formula, develop pneumonia, and die anyway.  I don't know if it is really
any kinder to keep them alive a few days so they can suffer through
pneumonia.
 
Although I never had it happen to me, I know of several others who have
had jills fail to produce milk, and who valiantly tried to save the
litters hand feeding them, with no luck.  Once they are 2 or 3 weeks old,
it is a different story.  By that age, they can usually be bottle fed.
 
Most breeders try to breed jills 2 at a time, breed a jill when another
breeder is breeding a jill, or breed one and false another, so there will
be a surrogate mom available if a jill doesn't get in her milk.  Most
jills will willingly accept kits from another litter.  The fact that a
jill had milk once does not guarantee she will get her milk in the next
time, either.  When the mother's milk does not come in, there is also a
shot (oxytossin) you can get from a vet to give them, and sometimes that
will stimulate the milk production, but if that fails and there is no
jill to foster them, you can pretty much count that litter gone.
 
Living on the other side of the country, I do not know who the breeder
referred to is, or what, if anything, was or was not tried.  However,
there was probably not much that could have been done for these poor
little lives.  It is a sad situation, but not worth being outraged over.
 
Danee
ADV - If your ferret hasn't been tested, you don't know!
For more information visit:
http://www.geocities.com/russiansmom
[Posted in FML issue 4010]