young ferrets

[nicjhas 2]

H i all, im new to thl, just wondering at what age should a young ferret be before you start working it? would this years kits be too young to work this season? and do most ferrets take to it naturally or are some harder to train than others. Thanks guys.

[diggermad 153]

leave them till next season mate get a worker around 8 months old for this season cheers DM

[ferret1 6]

This years kits will be fine to work this season. Some ferrets take longer than others to get into it but you should nt have any problems. I will be working kits from this years stock this season.

[kristian 9]

H i all, im new to thl, just wondering at what age should a young ferret be before you start working it? would this years kits be too young to work this season? and do most ferrets take to it naturally or are some harder to train than others. Thanks guys.

First of all welcome ! I've only just started ferreting myself, I've been told that they should be ok to work at the end of this season. I'm sure someone with experience will answer your question soon. All the best, Kristian.

[nicjhas 2]

Thanks for the response guys! Great forum, can't wait for the season to start! Happy ferreting!

[The one 8,402]

Up to you mate only you will know if your kitts are mature enough to have a wee go if there nice early kitts i dont see any problem a bit later kitts still take it nice and slow and try smaller burrows till you think there capable of doing a bit more

Kitts are like kids they all develop differntly so theres no hard and fast rules

[Malt 379]

As soon as they're physically big enough, they should work. Give them plenty of handling, getting them used to being picked up and put down. Also let them come fully out of the hole before you try to pick them up, otherwise they might think you're playing with them and start fecking about in and out of the hole. Believe me, there's not much worse than spending 3/4 of an hour trying to gaff a fert that's in & out of a rabbit hole like a bloody jack in the box.

[stealthy1 3,964]

9 months is the earliest I would enter kits, purely because they are still growing, and if you work them to hard on the warrens when they're young, then that energy wont be going into producing muscle, its hard graft running burrows

[Fat-Ferret 857]

As soon as they're physically big enough, they should work. Give them plenty of handling, getting them used to being picked up and put down. Also let them come fully out of the hole before you try to pick them up, otherwise they might think you're playing with them and start fecking about in and out of the hole. Believe me, there's not much worse than spending 3/4 of an hour trying to gaff a fert that's in & out of a rabbit hole like a bloody jack in the box.