Wolfy asked me: "When are kits weaned naturally? & Would they really have a negative effect being UN-handled until week 8?" I am answering Wolfy's questions on-list in case anyone else shares an interest in the answer. Those who don't, can scroll on to the next post. Wolfy, You are so right about it being a catch 22. In answer to the weaning question. Ferrets are unique in that they get baby teeth at 3 weeks and start eating solid food at that time; yet their eyes don't open until 4 weeks. So here you have these blind kits crawling around hungry and actively (aggressively) seeking and searching out for food. They are extremely competitive and this could be why some are so aggressive, maybe coming from large litters. So, they start eating at 3 weeks, over the next two weeks, they are eating and nursing. By week 5, I would say yes, they could SURVIVE without milk, but since I would still observe occasional nursing, I would never dream of selling them that young. By 6 weeks the mother is pretty much, "fed up" with the kits (mine would take to sleeping on top of her nest box just to get away from them) The kits don't stop to nurse anyway, they are much too busy exploring the big wide world. Does the mother still have milk in her teats and do the kits still nurse at all? Well, ... maybe, but I never noticed it, so I couldn't justify to myself keeping them another whole week, cute as they were. This is why I would sell my kits at 6 weeks, but still I would only sell the largest ones first and progressively move down from there. Right from the time they are born, some are just bigger and stronger than the others. People didn't like that I would sell the largest ones first because they wanted to pick out their own kit from the litter. I would say no. This is the one for sale today. If you want to pick out a smaller one, you must wait until the other larger ones are sold. This way the smaller one has time to catch up. Only once did I let someone choose between 2 kits; who were alike in size. I also never sold more than one kit a day. That way the litter would gradually get smaller; in case the mother was still secretly nursing. I also just didn't want her to suddenly loose all her kits at once. I didn't think it was good for her, or the kits psychologically. I guess I'm just overprotective that way. Keep in mind, that not all the kits would sell in the 6th week. Depending on demand, I often had a few kits left over and sometimes the last ones were not sold until week 8; however, I never saw any more nursing after week 6. That's not to say it didn't happen, I just never observed it. And I was always very observant of my kits. As far as them being OK if they are sitting around longer; until 8 weeks, without any handling. Well, ... I just don't know, I would say it depends on the kit. Most seem to be fine and will turn out to be good ferrets anyway, no matter what. Then there are those kits that just need more handling. Even my kits who were handled DAILY, from the time they were born (I had a very trusting jill) were wild, feisty, aggressive little guys. By the time they were 6 weeks I would say mine were well socialized. But even I; YES ME, (with all of my handling, holding, petting, and loving) I still had one kit returned to me at 10 weeks for biting. That was a kit who needed additional handling and training. The new owner was holding it less and less because she was afraid of being bitten. All kits go through a nipping stage and most out grow it, however, this one was going from nipping to biting hard. I worked with it for another week and then resold it with no further problems. So you see it can happen, in even the best of all possible situations. I do remember once when I was little, our cat had kittens. By the time the kittens were a couple weeks old, my sister and I had spent plenty of time holding, petting, and loving them. Then we all left the house for a two week vacation. My mother left plenty of food and water for the cat and kittens. When we came back, they were wild. They were scared to death of us. No amount of holding, handling and petting of these kittens would help to calm them down. They continued to hiss, arch their back, every hair standing on end, and run away as fast as they could. When we did catch them, they just struggled like mad to get away from us and hide. After days of trying, my mother finally gave up. She called Animal Control to come and take them. They had to use nets to catch them. They said that since the kittens had not been properly socialized during such a critical stage in their life; when they are developing very important first impressions, they would always be wild. They would never make a good pet. The kittens were put to sleep. The window of opportunity to socialize them is brief and once closed, it can never be reopened again. My mother had no idea. All the time that we had spent with them before we left, could not make up for the time they spent alone, growing with no human contact. Granted, kittens are not ferrets. But as you all can tell; that experience had a huge impact on me, being quite young and impressionable myself. Pam [Posted in FML issue 4665]