Matan For an animal, the drive to breed is like your drive to scratch an itch. If there is no itch, you don't miss scratching it. Animals are not capable of missing something that is hormonally controlled. A hamster, a dog or a cat will all follow their drives to mate and to raise their young but none of these animals risk anemia or infection through heats the way ferrets do. In North America it is acknowledged that something as risky as breeding ferrets should be left to people who are proficient at it. You don't yet know enough about breeding ferrets to be capable of doing it safely. If I were interested in breeding I would research everything there is to know about it BEFORE ATTEMPTING IT since jills face illness with every unbred heat. I would have my own hob and vasectomized hob to breed with my jills, OR access to the appropriate injections so that I could control her heats myself and I would limit the number of litters the jill produced. Raising young is VERY draining for an animal so if your ferret is bred on every heat she may become weak and susceptible to more illnesses, related to breeding or not. I believe that for an animal there is a lot more to life than breeding. My three ferrets love to explore, go outdoors on leash, dig in the sand, eat cheerios, play with plastic grocery bags, and cuddle with me. Their lives are very full and happy, and because they are healthy, they will enjoy this for a very long time. And I will enjoy them for a very long time. For the record, I have a degree in biology and have been accepted to veterinary school for this fall. Jen Newton, Dobie and Fig. [Posted in FML issue 3454]