Rich.h

While I can get the issue of costs for housing and such. What seems to be missing is that for a small run of perhaps <-10 they could easily be made in your shed over a weekend, all that needs doing is sourcing the electronics and finding a suitable form of housing. As long as your not asking money for it simply make up a set of plans with listed suppliers for parts and offer it out to folk to make their own?

Seen a few posts from folk needed jills taken out of season so figured I would do the opposite and offer my hob for taking them out. He was snipped last year and since then has taken one jill out last year after she came in a second time that year. This year so far he has taken all three jills out of season with no issues. I'm in the northwest of northern ireland, happy enough if you drop a jill with me and pick her up again in a few days. Unless for some odd reason I got lots of jills being left here I won't ask for any cash as the food is buttons. Obviously if I got a few folk all wantin

Have to say i'm in the "man up and take the bite" camp. Until the ferret learns you are not a threat but a friend as it were, it will continue to bite. Also it will never learn this unless you are handling as much as physically possible, it's simple maths the more you handle the quicker it happens. As for shouting, flicking etc I don't see the point as your just establishing a bad relationship from the beginning, once it has got used to you is the time for the odd hiss or scruff and shake as they then know it's simply displeasure and nothing to be scared of. Also avoid gloves they are less tha

I keep a vasecomised hob with three jills all year, once he has mated with them they don't give him a look in anymore so the harassment stays to a minimum.

Sounds just like he did his job properly. Give it a week or so checking every couple of days and you should notice a drop in size. As to the red then it just sounds like he went a bit viking is all.

I wouldn't worry my 3 jills vary it seems on a whim. The first one this year had me worried as she had been in season for at least 3 weeks, during this time the hob was at her daily and she still didn't show signs of going down. The opposite being true of another who was mated twice over two days and almost fully down within another three days. After seeing it from both ends now I'd say just make sure your hob has had a good insertion (bit of a graphic job, but my hob had a habit of humping a jills back for an hour before doing anything). Then just play the waiting game.

his balls have fully dropped about 2 weeks back. he does seem to try to mate i'm mainly concerned about how long i can safely leave the jill until i have to get the vet to do a jab?

Hoping i'm just overreacting so asking to be safe. I have a vasectomised hob for taking my jills out of season and noticed one jill swelling the last couple of weeks. However the hob seems less than useless, he grabs the jill and goes through most of the motions but seems to endup just humping her back if anything at all. Granted i dont watch them 24/7. I last year the jills were jabbed so i presumed mating a hob would take about the same amount of time for the swelling to go down. Is there a chance i need to give him lessons? also whats the longest i can safely wait before biting the bullet a

Got into a debate with the mother in law recently regarding various forms of hunting, started easily enough with her fluffy bunny mentality telling me how things like ratting terriers or diggin foxes is terrible. An easily won argument when pointing out how swift it is and the details of the alternatives. She then brought up the popular fox hunting ban and let loose an inquisition. I have to admit at one stage she bowled me over with a stumper that I simply cannot answer, to paraphrase her "if it's so humane using a terrier to dig a fox out then why do you need horses and hounds?". In all

Sounds more like the dog is bored sensless. Simply walking it to the point if later life injuries wont fix that.

Sounds more like the dog is bored sensless. Simply walking it to the point if later life injuries wont fix that.

Will have to disagree there, it's all good and well having a dog that comes to command when your working it but when its just out for a walk and joe public are about having the dog off lead is daft not to mention it gives you no chance to step in and protect your dog should the need arise. I always keep a dog on a lead for walks or long rope for running loose along with a sturdy stick so should any other dogs approach without me inviting them they get swiftly warned off. Something that can't be done if I have let them go off 100 yrds or more. This way exactly my worry. Just because my

Just wondering how much walking etc folks give their pups? I have a 5 month old 3/4 lakeland russel bitch, and whilst I want to get her as much excercise as she needs I'm also aware that too much too soon can make her prone to hip problems etc when older. Currently she gets a good length walk once a day on either grassy fields or the beach where I will walk around 2-3 miles with her on a 50ft rope length so she can run about. In addition if she seems to have excess energy I give her a 15 minute or so walk in an evening. I try to always choose reasonbly soft ground so she can build up muscl

So it's almost that time of year again where I get roped into helping some friends who have a small holding with their turkeys. Normally I bag myself a free bird out of this and last year went home with a sackful of feet for the ferrets too. Since getting a lakeland this year I will be splitting the feet between them, but I'm wondering about asking for the heads too. So far the only obvious issue I can think of is if the dog decides to swallow whole beaks and they cause issues internally, yet she swallows enough pieces of bones anyway that I wonder if I'm just being a drama queen. Anyone

Could be wrong then was something I heard from a friend that they had moved to skeoge estate in derry due to some fall out or other between the owners. I just knew that the person who used to know alot about ferret anatomy doesn't work there anymore so looked for somewhere new a year ago. All creatures in limavady have a guy there who knows all the scientific mumbo jumbo and have the correct textbooks to back it up. Plus anytime there is even a slight mixup in things he happily throws me a discount, which in my mind is a mark of a decent vet who isn't totally about the money.