Sorry Its taken me so long to post the rest of my information I recieved from the zoo, but here it is. During the kit season, the workload more than doubles. Cages need to be cleaned twice a day and kit formulas need to be made in addition to the other tasks at hand. The number of ferrets triple during this time. Kits start arriving around derby day (1st saturday in may). Breeding season begins around mid march and gestation is 42 days. Before females and males are matched, the keepers consult two charts detailing each ferrets mean kinship value and inbreed coefficient. This is done in order to determine which one of 4 males can be bred to each female to insure the greatest amount of genetic diversity. During this time, females and males cycle in and out during the spring of the year, hence the need for breeding charts. According to the keeper, there are generally 16 females and 12 males available each year for breeding. Once males and females are paired, infrared cameras like those seen in banks are attached to the breeding boxes to observe breedng behavior as well as monitoring kit care. Breeding boxes are attached to more open living and eating quarters by means of pvc tubing. This is one way to simulate the underground prairie dog burrows the ferrets will occupy in the wild.The kits are born blind and nearly hairless. The first 5 days they do not clean the nest box, then after that they quietly clean the latrine side once a day. At 24 days, they give them kit care gruel, a slurry of a kit milk replacement with pureed chicken and distilled water. They really swim in it as they eat. Then they are taken out, bathed, and put under a heat lamp to dry as the keepers clean the nest box. This is done twice a day. They also weigh the kits before and after feedings to insure all kits are getting enough to eat. An extra bowl of gruel is placed in the nest box for mom. Sometime between 60 and 120 days, the kits are given processed, disease free prairie dog. They all seem to like it very well and actually fight over it. Ferrets will imprint on a food source at 60 days, so they are also given a dietary supplement so that they wont imprint on the prairie dog exclusively. When released, young ferrets are put in a preconditioning pen where they can dig and hunt for prairie dogs. They generally spend from 30 to 60 days in the pen before being released. This helps in the transition from captivity to prairie life. One major contribution the louisville zoo has made is learning that BFFs will breed in the day as well as night, as thought before. Oh , another neat thing, they are considering giving the BFFs Totally Ferret to replace the moist food they make themselves. One of the keepers writes for a newsletter called Husbandry Herald, its a newsletter for captive breeding facilities of BFFs. What was really neat also is they talked about how each ferret has a different personality, and Happy danced, ( I assume our version of war dancing) and that some would bark very loudly while others were timid and shy. Its a nice little zoo to visit, and I am sure in late august I'll have some more information to give you! Thanks for listening!! Misty [Posted in FML issue 2348]