>Billy UK wrote:
>IT seems i have caused some concern over my breeding for this spring??
>I must tell you all that homes are ready and waiting, my ferrets are in
>excellent condition and the kits will be the same.  I know i could get up
>to 40 kits but the homes are there.
 
I hope you've got a good 'ferret' vet, jills can run into problems.  I've
heard of two cases last year where the jill had to have an emergency
operation to save her life.  Both jills lost their kits and ended up being
spayed.
 
Will you be breeding from all your jills again next year, even the ones
that you don't manage to re-home this year?  Depending on where you live
the cost of a Delvostron injection can cost anything from 2 quid up to 15
and above.  I've had two jills that have had ovarian tumours - one of the
jills had had a litter, I took her in when her 6 kits were one day old -
so I am now getting all my jills spayed.  I used to use a vasectomised hob,
I don't know whether or not producing kits have any bearing on ovarian
tumours, some jills sail through life just being brought out of season with
jill jabs and don't have any problems at all.
 
What about the hobs, quite a lot of ferreters don't like using hobs for
working, have you got accommodation to keep in season hobs living singly -
they fight if they're left together.
 
Just in case you are wondering why I am so concerned I have 48 ferrets
here - all rescued - I haven't bred from any of them... I took the 48th
one in on Friday evening.  It's a poley hob - probably last year's kit.
He's really skinny probably hasn't been fed a decent meal during his life.
 
I've heard about one chap who was breeding ferrets for the working market.
He supplied a heck of a lot of unsavoury characters with kits for the
coming working season.  The following year the same characters were back
wanting more kits... These individuals didn't want to keep the ferrets over
the spring and summer months, they either abandoned the ferrets or cracked
'em over the head.  Strange to say I can tell prospective pet owners just
when I expect an influx of stray and abandoned ferret.  Yeah you guessed
it - the end of the working season...
 
A chap I go ferreting with, like you, has 4 jills but he's got a
vasectomised hob living with them.  If he wants another jill to replace
an elderly one he will get from a rescue - he just doesn't want to add to
the problem of overbreeding.
 
I suggest you visit Clitheroe Livestock Market - you can pick up a kit for
around 50pence - a couple of years ago they had so many they were actually
turning them away.
 
Don't forget that for every animal born another one loses it's home...
 
--
Sheila
Bolton Ferret Welfare.
Membership Secretary & Editor of The National Ferret Welfare Society.
Web Site: www.btinternet.com/~sheila/ferrets.htm
last update 19 December 1999
The views expressed by me are not necessarily those of the NFWS.
[Posted in FML issue 2931]