Keeping intact ferrets
 
As far as weight is concerned I have found that if ferrets as fed on a
ad-lib raw diet as kits that each the hob kits grows larger than its
farther where as the jills tend to stay on the smaller side, with the
jills I think their small size is a matter of genetics the smallness of
the jill means that she could find more places to have her kits and the
larger hobs would not be able to attack the litter that is if they were
still wild animals.
 
My largest hob is all muscles and very little fat, over the holiday
period I shall weigh all my ferret just to see what their winter
weight is.
 
What I am trying to get over is the future of the species in the UK and
where it is going, over the last two or three years some people have been
getting together and discussing the future of the ferret, in most other
countries they have a breeding program for ferrets and only certain hobs
are allowed to be bred from, but mention the fact that people want to
breed to stop the ferret in the UK from becoming inbred and you have a
lot people start shouting that there are enough ferrets in UK rescues
for there to be no need to breed anymore, but that does not solve the
problem of ferrets becoming inbreed and it never will, so with a sensible
breeding program where the owners of some hobs would willing to use them
to cover more jills than their own and if these hobs were only allowed to
sire kits for say three years and then be retired from the program.
 
It would have to be a priority that any kit born from this program would
have to be microchip and under no circumstance should any of these
ferrets end up in a rescue, each breeder would need to be responsible
not only for making sure that all the kits went to homes where they were
wanted, but should they no longer be required by the new owners, then
the breeder should be willing to take them back.
 
These ferret kits should also be sold at a reasonable price which covers
the full expense of the rearing of these kits up to 12 weeks old, so that
the breeder is not out of pocket.  With a breeding program we will not
see the end of the 50p ferret from livestock markets, but all we can hope
for is that people who want a new ferret would buy it from some one who
is part of the breeding program
 
Talking of intact ferrets there are some of us around the world who like
the smell of intact ferrets and we see no reason why we should have our
ferrets altered just because others who do not like the smell of intact
ferrets say we should have them altered, my thoughts are that if people
do not like the smell of intact ferrets then why don't they get a rock
as a pet.
 
A few people that I have been talking to are like me and keep intact hobs
and jills together over the winter without any unwanted litters.  Once we
get over the shortest day it is time to split the ferrets into single sex
groups, that is unless you are running a vasectomized hob with jills.
 
Anyone with intact ferrets who wish to talk to others with intact ferrets
can contact me and i can put you intouch with an internation group on
which all the members keep intact ferrets.
[Posted in FML issue 4740]