Okay - Every body is coming at me accusing me of making up the figure of
3-4 litters per year.  HERE is where I got my figures.  If I'm quoting a
book incorrectly - I'm not trying to do anything illegal.  I'm just trying
to keep everyone from jumping on me and slandering me!  It's called
SELF-DEFENSE!
 
"Biology and Diseases of the Ferret,"  by James G. Fox, D.V.M. (I believe
Dr. Fox is currently a "big-wig" at MIT Veterinary Dept.)
 
QUOTE FROM BOOK: "In one breeding colony, because of management practices,
females began their reproductive life between 7 and 10 month of age and
were bred continuously until productivity declined.  Females averaged 3.7
litters per year, and were rarely maintained beyond 6 litters or 30 months
of age....  [BIG deleted stuff here for brevity]
... The greatest economic  gain for commercial ferret breeders is realized
by maximizing the reproductive performance of the colony while minimizing
incapacitating disease processes. ... [BIG chopped here too] ...
In this respect, one of the nation's largest ferret breeding facilities,
Marshall Farms (MF) USA,* has applied over  50 years of experience in
natural ingredient dietary formulation toward the optimization of
reproductive performance.  THEIR SUCCESS IS MEASURED BY THE FACT THAT
PRIMIPAROUS FEMALES IN THEIR COLONY WHELP AN AVERAGE OF 10.3 (PLUS OR MINUS
0.2 ) KITS PER LITTER, SUCCESSFULLY WEAN 80% OF THESE, AND PRODUCE 3 OR 4
LITTERS PER YEAR."
 
If you'd like to accuse Dr.  Fox of making up numbers - please do so
directly.  I didn't have anything to do with it.
 
to Margaret:  (Who asked about manipulating the number of reproductive
cycles.  )  Yes, it's done.  I'm not a breeder - nor did I ever have any
desire to be one -  one of the breeders or vets can shed more light on this
- but it has to do with carefully controlling light.
                              Jeanne
[Posted in FML issue 1309]