Tony *Ferrets* O'Sullivan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:-
>If what you are saying is true, how come there is a newspaper cutting
>on the following site that tells how a jill ferret reared a young rat.
 
If an adult rat had been put near the jill I doubt very much if that
would have survived more than a few minutes.  The mother would have
regarded it as a threat to her kits.  There are even instances of a fox
hound bitch rearing a fox cub with her pups - however, that would not
prevent the same bitch from hunting a fox the next time she went out with
the pack - nursing animals of all types can sometimes accept the unweaned
young of another species; the helplessness of a baby animal probably has
the "awww" factor on them as it does on humans.
 
When we were doing the Ferret Display and Racing at the CLA Game Fair
several years ago a falconer gave use some day old chicks and a dead
rat for the ferrets.  The ferrets ate the chicks but were at a loss
what to do with the rat - they had never been given one before and they
just didn't regard it as food - it was treated as a toy and eventually
taken to bed with them, however, I am sure that if the rat had been
alive when introduced to the ferrets cage they would very quickly have
dispatched it.
 
I would not trust any of my ferrets near any small animal - it doesn't
take much to kick in the hunting instinct... you might think it's dormant
but it when that gene is activated you have to act very quickly to
prevent a tragedy - I believe you nearly found out the hard way that
ferrets can't be trusted too much around prey animals when you put a
ferret in the rabbit pen at a show you were doing - the public were
nearly treated to a display of how a ferret dispatches a rabbit, I
think you were actually trying to prove that ferrets can get along with
rabbits :-(
[Posted in FML issue 4026]