>From: Sandi Ackerman <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: 3-4 week old ferret babies >I've been told off list that ferrets don't usually have their eyes open >at 3-4 weeks of age. "Almost never" would be a better description. The "popeye look" can start in the fourth week. I'd be worried about a kit whose eyes opened during the third week - it would mean something was wrong. >I've only had experience bottle feeding a couple of baby ferrets and one >of those did start opening his eyes at 3 weeks. (The mom had died giving >birth the day before they were brought to me.) Its exceedingly hard to nurse day old kits on bottles. We have never found nipples small enough. If thats what you did, congratulations. Almost all the breeders with decades of experience claim its more or less impossible. Thats why we always have netwoks of breeders with backup surrogate mothers. Most jills that die giving birth tend to take all the kits with them. Perhaps the kits you took in weren't actually just a day old or I misunderstood what you meant. They would be smaller than your pinkie finger at that age. They look like nothing so much as small peeled steamed shrimp. They need to nurse with in hours of birth and be kept completely warm or they turn purple-blue and die very very quickly. A nipple for them to use would be something like the size of the end of a syringle with the sharp removed. Look at any jill (spayed or not) and you can see just how small the nipples are. They swell but not that much for the first few days. Most breeders with decades of experience seem to think that its not until about the third week that you should even consider hand nursing as a viable alternative to finding a surrogate jill. >I thought the gunk in her eyes was because she was ill Eye infections like this actually seem related to mastitis infections in the mother. Usually from souring milk on the mother's teats. Treat mothers with warm compresses or warm baths. We put 2 or 3 inches of very warm water in a tub and let mama wade around. Softens the hardening nipples and cleans all the grunge right off. Treat kits with a opthamolic antibiotic ointment. Works like a charm about every time with only a few applications. Vets can tell you more about this. You don't force open the eyes, just apply the ointment on the eye whether its opened yet or not. >Several years ago, when Petco began selling rabbits they did what appears >to be a similar thing when they ordered a supply of baby rabbits from >somewhere back east (that's where they got the best price). The bunnies >were shipped at about 2 1/2 weeks of age Ferrets are not rabbits. A rabbit ages more quickly over the first few weeks than a ferret. Actually kittens and puppies also progress much more quickly over that span too. Two and a half is too young for rabbits probably but that is probably more similar to 5 weeks for ferrets (which is also too young by most of our tastes). >Their buyers don't seem to always make the best decisions about how to >stay "profitable". Rabbits are cheap compared to ferrets. The term "breeding like rabbits" is about the fact that rabbit litters are so big. Pragmatically to a business losses of rabbits are not the same as losses of ferrets. To those that care about them as pets it is obviously different. Its a different economic picture to a store. Ferret kits are probably 5 to 10 times more expensive than rabbits. -bill -- bill and diane killian zen and the art of ferrets http://www.zenferret.com/ mailto:[log in to unmask] [Posted in FML issue 2582]