Poor Annie is probably panicking after she has read the reaction of people
on the list to her unaltered ferrets and desire to breed them.  I don't
think her situation is really that bad - at least she has asked for help.
 
The problem here is she is not experienced with ferrets - and time and
asking people for help is going to change that.  If she knows what she's
doing now or in the future, why shouldn't she breed?
 
Annie has now been warned about the cost and the potential health risks.
Breeders out there face these problems and cope, after further research
into these problems, perhaps she will decide that she can too.  Everyone
has got to start somewhere.
 
Now, some facts about keeping breeding ferrets:
 
>It is rare to be able to house hobs and jills together.
 
In my experience, this is not true.  Our jills lived full time with a
vasectomised hob, and the full hob was also in with them all in the winter.
The only fighting was between the jills - jills can be so bitchy!  You
certainly wouldn't have hobs living together in the mating season - then
the fur would fly.
 
Annie would want to keep the hob separate in the mating season until she
wanted to breed him to one of the jills, then she would put them together
just for the mating.  At the moment, if the jill is not in heat the
agressiveness is probably more due to the meeting of two strange ferrets.
 
In practice this will mean keeping him separate during the summer months
for a year or so.  It is not advisable to breed jill until they are fully
physically mature.  Two years is recommended as the earliest.  The hob
would probably sill get on ok with the jills in the mating season when
they weren't actually on heat, but in my experience it is best to keep them
as separate as possible - accidents can happen and it only takes thirty
seconds of inattention to wind up with an expectant jill.
 
To keep the jills from getting pregnant before they are mature, Annie will
need to find a vasectomised hob, or take them to the vet when they are on
head for hormone shots.
 
As for the smell - the hob is going to stink.  The jills aren't going to
smell too great either.
 
Those are some breeding facts from my experience.  I've only bred one
litter, and we were lucky enough to have no health problems, so I can't
comment there.
 
The hardest thing about breeding from my point of view, was having to
sell the babies.  It was very difficult watching my beautiful bright-eyed
teenage ferrets walking out the door with people will hopefully be good
owners.  Don't underestimate how hard it can be to give them up.
 
Kylie
 
Queensland, Australia
[Posted in FML issue 2739]