Hi Edward,
I appreciate your interest in Val's litter, and will attempt to answer
your questions, or at least some of them. I did feel that a few of them
bordered on being nosey, but maybe I was reading more into your post
then was meant. However, as I said, I do feel at least some of the
questions are legitimate, and it may be others are wondering the same
things.

>How many nipples does Valkyrie have working? Does each kit have
>access to a separate one or is sharing a requirement if she has
>fewer that six?

Val has a total of 9 teats, and currently has 7 in use. With only 6
kits, I am not sure why 7 are in use, but I am not going to argue the
matter with Val or the babies. So, as any given time, all kits can be
nursing at once. However, usually when I look in, only 3 will be
nursing at any given time, and the other 3 will be sleeping. Although
there is roughly a 6 gram difference between the largest and smallest
kits at this time, they are all gaining roughly the same amount each
day.

At 10 days old, they do not have any teeth yet, but yes, when the milk
teeth come in, those can be very sharp.

>We were able to solve the needle kits biting by supplementing them
>with a soup mix, even before their eyes opened, the soup that we still
>use today.

I usually start my liters on mush sometime between 3 and 4 weeks. The
timing varies, depending on the size of the litter, and the mom's
ability to meet the needs of the kits. I like to keep the kits nursing
as long and as much as possible, because nothing takes the place of
the mother's milk. I allow my jills to decide for themselves when to
completely wean the kits, also.

>A question for you: how has or will the tail tape numbering be of
>benefit to you? I'd be concerned that the tail tape would contaminate
>all the other kits after the tape is contacted with the feces/urine
>and thereafter brought into the nest as the kits intertwine
>themselves.

I weight the kits daily on a scale that is accurate to 0.1 grams, and
record the weights. One of the best ways to tell if there is something
going wrong is if 1 or more kits fail to gain weight in a given day.
I also examine each kit, and note any changes of interest. This
information is all recorded on a spread sheet. The tail tags are a
way of telling the kits apart. Other breeders use other methods.

Keeping the tail tags clean has not been a problem. Val has religiously
cleaned them each day - so well that I have had to rewrite the numbers
on some of them.

>Also, how do you intend to remove the tape from the apical tail?

That actually became a moot point today. Val had removed all the tail
tags over night, so I had to put new ones on today. I just hope that
I numbered them correctly.

>I didn't know that Meesha had a litter previous to Valkyrie. Who is
>the fathering ferret and is he the same for both mothers?

Meesha had a litter in February of 2008. The father of her litter, and
the father of Val's current litter are brothers.

>Can you tell us the intended disposition of the current litter and the
>past disposition of Meesha's litter? You must have given some thought
>to the prevention of inbreeding as well as crossbreeding. How do you
>prevent undesirable breeding after the kits are sold and out of your
>control?

Meesha's litter from last year were placed in various homes. Of the
7 kits she had, all but 1 were sold on a spay neuter contract. The
seventh kit was sold to a friend who is also a breeder, and will be
used in her breeding program.

I screen potential adopters very carefully, and require that they sign
a contract. And, while the contract would be expensive to enforce if
the adopter did not live up to the conditions set in the contract,
usually between the screening and the contract, the people who end
up getting the kits do get them spayed and neutered. In the case of
Meesha's litter from last year, the 6 sold on a spay/neuter contract
were all spayed and neutered after they reached sexual maturity.

Whether a kit is sold on a spay/neuter contract or sold for breeding
purposes, the buyer receives a pedigree for the kit showing ancestors
for several generations back. That way, they know what the kits
background is.

>As a suggestion, you might consider nomenclaturing the kits in a
>manner that shows the geneological relationship of mother and father
>in the name of the kit. This geneological kit name would appear on the
>adoption certificate and could provide a clear benefit to preventing
>possible disasterous, albeit accidental inbreeding. We would like to
>know how you intend to protect you future F2 generations once they
>are beyond your control.

While I might give the kits a litter name, I let the new owners give
them their actual name. I know in Europe it is common for the breeder
to give all the kits an official name, but most of us here in the US
who breed do not do this.

>Just so you know the difference between line breeding and
>crossbreeding is in the degree. Inbreeding mates father to
>daughter, and mother to son. Also brother to sister.

The definition I have always heard is that inbreeding means a mating
of 2 (ferrets) that are closer then first cousins to each other.
Line breeding is breeding 2 closely related (ferrets) that are first
cousins or something less close. Out crossing is breeding 2 unrelated
(ferrets).

So far, I have not practiced inbreeding, although there are certain
advantages to it, if you have the right lines to work with. When line
breeding or inbreeding, you will magnify any genetic qualities the
ferrets posses. This can be good or bad, depending on the genetic
qualities of your stock

>The development of a pure line will eventually occur. The line should
>be superior to the average in the breed.

This will only happen if you start out with ferrets free of genetic
faults. However, if you lines have faults, you will find out what they
are very quickly.

>Longterm linebred ferrets offer the unique possibility that, along
>with other factors, may indeed reduce the frequency of adrenal cancer
>in ferrets that occurs today.

I see very few instances of adrenal disease in my ferrets, and when it
occurs, it occurs when they are over 6 years old. I am certain there
is a genetic factor involved with adrenal disease, but I also think
that the early spay/neuter practiced by the large farms is partially
responsible for the problem being so widespread in the US. Most of the
ferret owners I know and deal with are either private breeders or have
late alter ferrets they obtained from private breeders. While there is
still some adrenal disease in these ferrets, it generally occurs at a
much lower rate, and much later in life.

As an example, I currently have a jill who is almost 9 years old. She
was not spayed until she was over 2. She has not shown any sign of
adrenal disease or of insulinoma. She is not as active as she once was,
but she still plays, and has a fairly nice coat. I believe husbandry
has a lot to do with the development of both adrenal disease and
insulinoma.

In case you are interested, while not closely related, Val is distantly
related to the father of her kits - my boy Roarke. The inbreeding
coefficient of this litter is 1.1719. This is with information going
back 6 generations. The inbreeding coefficient of Meesha's 2008 litter
is 3.1738. While I am capable of doing the math, I do not do the
inbreeding coefficient calculation manually. I use a pedigree program
that calculates it for me. Val was actually having a bad day today. Her
babies are now big and strong enough to climb out of the nest box, and
were doing so at regular intervals. Val found this very frustrating,
and she had to keep grabbing them and dragging them back into the nest.
She does not like it when she looses control of them. Unfortunately, it
will all be down hill, now. Like all youngsters, once they get a taste
of freedom, they only want more.

Danee DeVore
ADV - If your ferret hasn't been tested, you don't know!
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[Posted in FML 6277]