Mr. Lipinski: If you wish for us to communicate with you please start
refering to us by one of our real names not one of your corruptions of our
name.  We are not the killzenferrets nor zenists.  bill, diane, mr killian
or mrs.  killian are fine ways to address us.  This is getting quite
tedious.  Bill G.: perhaps you really ought to think about whether such rude
informality with names is a form of flaming.
 
In answer to the query.  In a jills first pregnancy of the year she will
most probably have a larger litter than in her second.  This is quite well
established.  It is independant statistically of the males involved in our
experience.  If instead of having a litter at her first estrus she instead
has a false pregnancy on her first estrus the effect on the size of a litter
from her second estrus is the same.  The specifics of the phenomenon can be
discussed in "shorthand" as saying she has fewer eggs available for
secondary or tertiary litters.  Males do seem less interested in breeding
later in the season but we are not being "short-sighted" if we have a
different opinion or have had different experiences than you have or had.
Perhaps you should contact other breeders if you doubt us.  This well known
phenomanon is even disussed to some extent although not directly involving
breeding to a vasectomized hob in the Fox book "The Biology and diseases of
the Ferret".  If it was handy we'd cite pages explicitly.  This is well
known by the reputable breeders we work with and the ranchers we've talked
to.  A related phenomenon is the small number of ferrets at ranches that can
successfully have second litters and the even smaller percentage that can
have a third under the highly controlled care of Marshall Farms.  Dr. Judi
Bell is a source of this information through direct conversation on the
phone.  We do not make this all up on our own but rather discuss ferrets and
their husbandry with those that have been breeding, some even for decades.
Sally Heber (AFA president), Vickie McKimmey (holder of numerous positions
in numerous ferret organizations) and Georgia Bailey (chair of both the AFA
judges committe and breeders committee) are among those who have expressed
this belief.
 
We did not refer to the time of year that estrus occurs.  We referred to the
number of previous estrus cycles in a given "year" - not calendar year based
on our twelve months but the serial sequence number from the first estrus
after the non-breeding season.
 
If you would use the same language to refer to the various aspects of
ferrets as the rest of us breeders we and other readers would have a better
time understanding you and you would have a better time understanding us.
 
bill and diane killian
zen and the art of ferrets
http://www.zenferret.com/
mailto:[log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 2133]