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ferret lady

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Everything posted by ferret lady

  1. ferret lady
    If her vulva doesn't start to shrink in 10 days or so after you first noticed she was back in heat, I'd consider putting her with a vasectomized hob. Using a jill jab might cause her milk to dry up.
  2. ferret lady
    It's fairly common for a jill to come back in heat if she has 3 or less kits. I've been told that their milk will dry up, but my hybrid ills didn't and continued to nurse their 2-3 kits through 6 weeks or so.
  3. ferret lady
    I wouldn't expect them to as their minds would have been on other concerns. <G>
  4. ferret lady
    The odds are that they were all feral ferrets and/or their descendants. If there were kits who were other than polecat colored, they most likely didn't survive long as they would have been an easy target for other p;redators.
  5. ferret lady
    I'm curious as to how you think a veterinarian can prove they're pure polecats since it's my understanding that even DNA testing can't differentiate between hybrids and polecats. In the past 20 years or so I've seen literally hundreds of photos purporting to be UK polecats. Only two of them looked like they might have been pure polecats and they were both taken in isolated areas of Wales. While a few might have been high content hybrids, the vast majority were clearly ferrets. I think your chances of actually getting a pure polecat in the UK are slim to none, although I don't doubt you'
  6. ferret lady
    One UK breeder did just that...turned down sales in the UK because she could get $200 (plus shipping costs) for each kit sold to gullible buyers in the US. Supposedly they were healthier and would live longer than the US show bred ferrets...sadly, that turned out to be not true for many of the kits.
  7. ferret lady
    No. A panda has a completely white head.
  8. ferret lady
    Pandas have all white faces and are usually deaf. The genetics involved can also result in deformities of the skull and jaws as well as intestinal and cardiac abnormalities.
  9. ferret lady
    High content hybrids and true polecats are very well muscled even as young kits. Both these kits look like ferrets to me...I don't see any indication that they might have polecat background. Where you the lady that imported the two we where talking about ?> the year after that i got a hob kit from dogger out off that pair to watch and he was totally different from the ferrets he was a brick shit house and he knew it used to mouch about in the rear of the cage i gave him to a guy that rated really dark ferrets and he seemed to take too him from the off and it worked out a lot better
  10. ferret lady
    High content hybrids and true polecats are very well muscled even as young kits. Both these kits look like ferrets to me...I don't see any indication that they might have polecat background.
  11. ferret lady
    It could also be hypocalcaemia, ie, milk fever. If she's still alive, get her to the vet immediately.
  12. ferret lady
    what? Ask the angora breeders.
  13. ferret lady
    Angoras jills don't produce sufficient milk so their litters have to be fostered to ferret jills. Want to guess what happens to the ferret kits??
  14. ferret lady
    Given that angoras result from a deleterious genetic mutation, no knowledgeable and/or ethical breeder would breed them. They are notorious for a number of genetic defects in addition to the long fur and no undercoat.
  15. ferret lady
    American mink cannot produce viable offspring with ferrets, so anyone who says they have such crosses is mistaken...to be tactful. Ferrets and polecats can produce offspring with European mink, but I believe the latter is rare to nonexistent in the UK.
  16. ferret lady
    For those who cull kits, how do you know that you aren't culling the best worker(s) in the litter? While it may be true that all ferrets will work, at least to some degree, some are obviously much better than others.
  17. ferret lady
    It's called Dead Ferret Sleep...they sleep so deeply that they can appear to be dead. It's scared a lot of people over the years.
  18. ferret lady
    It's possible that the jills' symptoms were due to hypocalcemia. Have a vet run a blood calcium test ASAP and treat accordingly.
  19. ferret lady
    It's not advisable to breed littermates if there are known health problems or defects in their background. If they come from a long lived, healthy background, then it should be perfectly safe and will set the good genetics behind them. Line- and inbreeding does not cause defects, it only brings out the recessive genes both parents carry where they can be eliminated from future breeding. I've linebred and inbred for 7 generations with no problems of any kind, but I breed the polecat coloration only with no dilute or white marked ferrets in the background.
  20. ferret lady
    It's caused by a neural crest defect as the kit develops in the uterus and is also an indication of possible gastrointestinal and/or cardiac abnormalities
  21. ferret lady
    Are you sure it's not a mink? True polecats are not black.
  22. ferret lady
    I'm talking about BOTH physical and mental traits. It doesn't matter how good their conformation is if they don't have a stable temperament, plus the correct instincts and mentality to do what they were bred to do.
  23. ferret lady
    I would consider a serious ferret breeder to be one who has a good working knowledge of genetics, and at least a basic knowledge of ferret genetics, plus is breeding toward his/her vision of the ideal ferret/polecat. Each breeding is carefully planned to produce better than the parents and the breeder plans to keep the best kit or kits. I wouldn't consider anyone a serious breeder who breeds multiple litters a year with no real thought given to the suitability of the mates to produce better than they are or any thought given to anything other than the current generation. IMO, someone who
  24. ferret lady
    Kay, I couldn't agree more! Inbreeding is invaluable for bringing out the recessive genes that both parents are carrying, both beneficial and deleterious, and geneticists advise doing it at least every 3 generations so that any harmful genes can be eliminated before they become widespread among the breeding population. Serious breeders should also be keeping complete records of what their breedings have produced, as well as tracking their kits after they are placed...something which seems to be very rare in the UK.
  25. ferret lady
    Rake Aboot, if your post is correct, you have an outstanding line of Eu polecats. Can you back up your claim by posting pics of them?
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