Benita's right about them often still being in the room or house, as they
were with her.  Even with ferret-proofing there is a little game to know
about.  It's called "mobile hide and seek".  In that game, as you search,
the ferret moves around, having decided that this is a fun game.  Spot
once kept us going for 3 hours with that.  Finally, he crashed in a
location we'd already checked maybe a half-dozen times already (since we
knew that he could be sneakily on the move).  We found a cure for that:
carrying around a smelly treat and repeating the word "treat" a lot.
Another tip: reduce extraneous sounds so that you hear their "heh-heh-heh"
breathy laughter.  We haven't had one outside, yet.  It will happen
sometime down the road, I'm sure, but know that it is possible for them
to still be inside and lead you on a merry chase with you seeing neither
hide nor hair of them.
 
Every once in a while it is useful to let folks know about the reliable
ways to age kits.  Size does NOT work; kits which are not forthright will
get short-changed on food by other kits and those grow less.  That also
happens if people short-change them.
 
At around five to six weeks, if memory serves, the eyes open.  Seem to
recall that breeders have said that 5 weeks to 5 and 1/2 weeks is most
common.  Breeders may correct me on this.
 
Dental eruption can give an age.  The adult teeth actually erupt into a
reasonably old kit age, but most ferret people and most vets don't have
the eruption ages to check so here are critical ones since the incisors
are a bit too variable (ages as per James Fox's vet texts):
 
Day 50 (about 7 weeks old): upper and lower Canines, lower Molar 1
 
Day 53 (about 7 and 1/2 weeks old): upper Molar 1
 
Day 60 (about 8 and 1/2 weeks old): upper Premolars 3 & 4, lower Premolar 2
 
Day 67 (about 9 and 1/2 weeks old): lower Premolar 3
 
Day 74 (about 10 and 1/2 weeks old): lower Molar 2
 
If you are seeing the large cheek teeth or the conical canines starting to
come in then you know the ferret is 50 days or more in age, and you can
use the refinements to get it more accurately.
 
If you want to know more on this topic, there are multiple posts by Bob
Church that will teach you a great deal, so try the archives.
 
No reason to guess when you can know...
 
>Epimetheus is a boy, he is punctuated with a belly button.
 
Suspect that you meant to write that as "belly button" since you obviously
know the gender.  I can't tell how very many times I have heard of folks
who talked about things like kissing their little girls' cute belly
buttons, only for them to find out that "she" is not a "girl" and that's
not a "bellybutton".
 
I hope that you find him safe and sound; that someone is keeping him but
will tire of him and seek you out, or that he's in a shelter ready for you
to pick him up, or turned into a neighborhood vet and in the back rooms,
or (if not in one of the rare FFZs) that a cop had someone ask him if
they'd heard of a lost one since one was found...
[Posted in FML issue 3623]