I have a female in heat who I plan to breed, but, after talking with four
breeders, am not sure when the OPTIMUM time to breed is.
 
One breeder - who has ferrets from the east coast, where she is well
connected with a breeder and vet - says no more that about a week and a
half.  Another breeder, who bred for quite some time, says it's important to
wait four to six weeks to make sure the jill is in a true, not false, heat.
He says there isn't a danger of aplastic anemia at this point.  He says the
female would not be ready in a week and a half and if she became impregnated
at this point the pregnancy and birth would not be as healthy and there
would be far less kits.  Both people are intelligent and both are dedicated
to ferrets; so the extreme discrepancy in info concerns me.  My jill has
been in heat a little longer than two weeks and there is not sign of anemia.
Possibly jills take different amounts of time to come into heat, but, then
again, they generally take 42 days to give birth, a very set time.  I
respect the breeders from the east coast very much, but my first loyalty is
to my jill and I want to dig a little deeper on this to give my girl her
best shot.  Plus, two other local breeders (besides the above-mentioned one)
also say wait four to six weeks to breed, one of which also says that false
heats exist, especially in winter, and are not a good time to breed.
Please, please help.
 
Also, although I don't have long history on the lineage of my jill, she's
beautiful and healthy and lined up to breed with a beautiful healthy male
with a long documented lineage (pedigree) including a history of healthy
kits.
 
Thank you,
 
Lynn
[Posted in FML issue 1438]