>Date:    Sat, 13 Jun 1998 21:23:41 -0700
>From:    MC <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: When to?
 
>. . . little girl that just turned 5 months and is a very whole ferret...
>When can I reasonably expect her to have her first heat?
 
Well, that is a good question!  I have been keeping an eye on my little girl
from New Zealnd, too.  I expect her to come into season by the end of the
summer due to the fact that it is summer.  The long days of light is really
what causes them to come into heat.  That is why big farms (or some little
ones, too) use artificial lighting to keep the jills comming into season.
Then again she may be totally confused & come in season during the winter -
I am just waiting to see!
 
>I have been told that the vet can give her a hormone shot to bring her out
>of heat...or, as I have read here, I can find someone with a vasectomied
>Are there any objections from the rank and file here to the hormone shots?
 
Well, I have used the hormone shots with my girls (due to the fact that I
haven't chosen one of my boys to make into a V-hob).  I once had a girl I
took out of heat at the beginning of the season & she never came back in
heat until the next year.  I have had girls come into heat 6 weeks after the
shot, too.  With a V-hob (or a whole boy), the cervix is open a little bit.
With the hormone shot it is not (please, if I am wrong about that correct
me!).  You run the risk of the jill getting pregnant from the V-hob if he
hasn't been vasectomied for the proper length (about 60 days) or was
incorrectly done.
 
No matter what choice you make, the jill will go into a false pregnancy,
gain weight, blow her coat, change her personality/attitude - towards
people & other ferrets.  I have a jill that loved other ferrets until she
had her first litter.  She will kick the crap out of any other ferret that
is out playing with her (unless it is a whole male).  She loves people &
always has.  So keep that in mind - now that you have her semi-calmed down,
she might change again!
 
Also with false pregnancies, the jill may come back into heat right away.
Sometimes a jill will have a litter & then come right back into heat the
next day.
 
Amy Felmming
Flemming Farms
http://www.geocities.com/heartland/ranch/9521
[Posted in FML issue 2340]