I am on the computer and a litter of four and a half week old kits is to my
right and about at desk height.  They know the "mush lady" is near-by.  Five
of the nine are hanging over the nest box, some with eyes just open, one
still closed and one just opening.  They are intense in their efforts to get
my attention.  "Wah,wah,wah" "eeeah, eaah, eaah" they call.  They want more
mush.  They just Had mush.  And they have been nursing.  At this age, they
are so efficient they can empty mama's mammary in no time at all.  The kits
are so adorable.  This is one of my favorite stages in their development.  I
adore their soft little fat tummy bodies.  Their smell is so wonderful, and
all the other girls and even the hobs think so too.  When I change the nest
pads, I usually throw them on a chair while I juggle everything.  Who ever
is around will immediately climb the chair and smell the bedding and roll in
it.  This rolling and rubbing is like a luxury and very sensuous.  They love
the smell too.  Of course, most have had babies or will have babies, but
even my neutered girls love to do this.
 
Right now they are at the stage where they are not yet on their feet, but
very efficient crawlers.  Most can navigate out of the nest to the litter
box.  Clever little darlings.  Some can navigate out, but not get back in
and will wail until mama or mush lady comes and "saves" baby.  Returned to
the warm nest and wonderful warm milk scented mama, they scream even louder
as they voice their complaint and distress.  Mama will make a high pitched
"chirr" noises, or a lower pitched and soft "duh,duh,duh" to them as she
comforts her baby.  The upset kit will almost always nurse - as this
provides comfort as well.  Soon baby is sleeping and sometimes makes shrill
whimpers in sleep - maybe dreaming of how scary it is out of the nest box.
A little while later, same baby will venture out again.  So clever - they
already know that you don't poop in the nest.  But while some can make it
into and out of the litter box, some are not quite "there" yet and will poop
anywhere, even in the food bowl.  Hey, it isn't the nest!
 
They started to explore their world, even with eyes closed.  Each day they
become more adventurous.  Last night, a black baby and a mitt baby, both
hoblets, were in the litter box making the first moves toward play.  Mouths
open and rolling around with each other.  So dear.  I tickle their little
tummies and they roll around making little noises.  Mama comes and fusses
with a louder "Duh,Duh,Duh" rapid fire as she pulls them back to the nest.
She is very tired and it is time for the babies to settle down and sleep so
that she can too.  She arranges the bedding and alternates fussing and
soothing until all are settled down to nap.
 
But soon they will be awake again.  They are ravenous all of the time.
Eating is their main preoccupation, as it has been since birth when they
nurse almost and only stop when sleep claims them and they roll off the
nipple into a wee sleeping ball.  During the first weeks after birth, you
can leave for a few hours, or just sleep at night and when you check the
babies, they have visibly grown.  The babies need a lot of fuel for this
rapid growth and development.  The Hunger.  I start my kits on mush by
letting them lick it from my fingers, then from the bowl of a spoon (O.K.,
so it is silver!) And then to a flat dish that they can all clamber into
making quite a mess and making mush disappear in minutes.  Mama likes the
mush too, and gets even more when she cleans up her babies.  Their mush
consists of chicken, turkey or veal baby food, Esbilac Puppy Milk Replacer
and Totally Ferret ground to powder in an electric coffee grinder.  In a
few days, they will get their first real chicken and then freshly cooked
chicken, turkey, beef or hamburger will become a part of their diet.
 
When the kits reach the stage where they can eat hard kibble, I still
continue the mush because they can pack in so much more nutrition very fast.
This, I believe, is crucial for them to reach optimum growth and
development.  Even as older kits, I will still have a bowl of regular mix
hard food, and a bowl of their food with mush stirred in which softens it.
I continue this until the kits are 13-16 weeks old, and if they leave me
before then, it is part of my requirement for new owners that they continue
the same, and, of course, give them the real chicken, turkey, etc.  I get
many comments on how large my ferrets grow - and this is my only secret.  I
don't think that just because they can eat Totally Ferret, etc.  that this
is all they need.  Today, for instance, all the kits licked nutri-cal from
my fingers.  They think this is great stuff!
 
Mama gets lots of extra nutrition too.  I give my mother's vanilla Ensure
Plus with a bit of infant pedialyte starting before labor and during labor.
I then continue this, using large infant medicine droppers, all the way
through nursing.  I add nutri-cal to the Ensure and stir it until it
dissolves and the mixture has a light Carmel appearance.  The nursing Jill
practically inhales it.  Even when she is eating huge amounts of food and
drinking tons of water, she will stop anything to get her 15-20 cc's of this
mixture.  I give it to the mothers every hour or so when the babies are new
born and then every couple of hours through nursing.  Very simple - The more
fluid and nutrients the mother gets equals the amount of milk she produces
which results in big babies.  But I am digressing and getting preachy!
 
In the last few days, I have been teaching the babies to drink from the
water bottle.  They catch on very fast and as I look over to them now, I
see one drinking from the spout.  Such clever, smart and beautiful little
babies!
 
When mama is out of the nursery for daily exercise and chronic murder
attempts on the other jills.  They are patient for her return.  When she
is back in the cage with them, their cries of greeting will hurt your ear
drums!  She talks to them and soothes them and settles down to nurse.  These
kits have to rotate since she only has six nipples for the nine babies.
This is not uncommon, my last litter was ten with nine surviving plus one
foster which brought it back to ten on six nipples.
 
But breeding is not all darling kits - it is also heartbreak.  I recently
lost a litter.  This mother's first litter was large and healthy.  But she
had a nasty diarrhea bug as labor approached and following birth.  I don't
know if this is the reason why she lost the babies, but I think it might be.
A couple of other breeders just recently have reported loses with a bug in
their house.  This diarrhea bug is nasty, but not ECE.  We have had ECE
three times in past years, and I know it well.  I also have a single kit
with a mother and she is three days old.  Unfortunately, I am looking at
heartbreak as this kit will probably be lost.  Single or dual kits just do
not provide enough stimulation for milk production and mama will usually
come back into season.  This is nature's way - the investment in larger
litters to protect the species.  There is no one I know right now that this
baby can be fostered to.  I am giving the mother very minute injections of
oxytocin to keep her milk going in hope of getting the kit old enough to be
hand raised.  Right now, the smallest doll nursing bottle or dropper is
still too large.  This is some of the heartbreak of breeding as any breeder
will tell you.
 
The babies are back sleeping now - one lying on his back, so dear with his
head back and his paws up beside his head and feed curled up.  He is
twitching a bit as he doubtless dreams of adventures now and those to come.
Their sweet little faces still have that "blunt" look which is how they are
to facilitate nursing.  This will change rapidly in the weeks to come.  By
next week they doubtless will have gained their feet and then all heck will
break loose and mama will have her paws full keeping them in line.  Although
everything you read tells you that kits wean at about six weeks, I have
never had a litter wean that young.  Mine seem to start weaning at about 8-9
weeks and it is not unusual to see my kits, huge as they are at 12-13 weeks,
still nursing, especially when they are tired.
 
But right now, I treasure the brief time I enjoy with these fat tummies and
totally sweet and precious new lives - so sweet and still so helpless and
dependent on the mother despite their budding curiosity for the world.
Their fears are quickly comforted.  They know not that if they were Marshall
Farm's kits, they would have already undergone surgery and be facing the
world with only litter mates to comfort them.  All in the name of getting
into the stores when they are at their cutest to attract a buyer.
 
For you Pepper, no more will you babysit our kits with your gentle and
dignified nature.  My last Marshall Farms ferret - lost to cancer of the
adrenals at age 5-1/2.  We were lucky, you lived nearly a year and a half
past your original surgery with bilateral adrenal cancer and cancer of the
pancreas.  For you my precious Pepper, whom I loved more than all I love
and have loved.
 
For you Pepper, the reason why I breed.  Because when you came to me as a
kit - I knew I would lose you between 4 and 5, because the age of MF
ferrets life spans was dropping..  For you Pepper, my heartbreak ferret,
my wonderful beautiful boy..  For you Pepper.  Meg
[Posted in FML issue 2294]