ratting with ferrets

[Guest rattdog]

I've read ferrets can get really sick and die if bitten by rats I wouldn't know because all my ratting has been done with a smoker. can they be used on a pocket gopher or are gophers to aggressive for ferrets. Id like to keep some but dont know if they would be any use to me in the states, the smoker is very loud and draws alot of attention.

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Rattdog; Most of us here are british, mate. Thus we have little or no concept of what a Pocket Gopher even is or looks like.

 

Personally, I've handled a few 'Gopher Traps' and, judging by the tiny, weak killing jaws, it seems to me a ferret would smash gophers with a single bite.

 

Having said that; How fast can a gopher move? I mean, if they have a jill ferret coming after them and are as easily killed as your traps suggest; Could they get out of her way fast enough? Would they exit their holes? What do they do when ye smoke them?

 

Give us some more hands on details of what your gophers do. Then maybe we can better surmise what 'our' ferrets would do to them

[Guest rattdog]

pocket gophers are a small burrowing rodent much like a ground hog but much smaller they defend thier burrow pretty fierce the tunnels are really elaborate and most burrows are three inches wide . gophers have a crushing bite and run backwards in thier burrow as fast as they can foward. just thought it would be a perfect job for a ferret, and my guess is that a ferret is designed perfectly for killing these little pricks. but I dont have much experience with ferrets. Ive tried smoking out the gophers but it dont work they can just put up a wall of dirt and block the tunnel rendering the smoker useless. Im more curious about the rats though, because Ive read some posts that said ferrets for rabbits and smoker for rats, and that they wouldnt waste a good jill or hob on being pig cut , I belive that means rat cut or mabey Im wrong, but do you guys loose many ferrets ratting . and what works better ferrets or smoker?

[IanB 0]

Can't say for certain, but they must be quite a bit bigger than rats using 3" diamater burrows..some ferrets will jib on rats after a few nasty bites and encounters...so something bigger with a crushing bite??? Not sure..

[Guest Lurchers2006]

Ye cant really say looking at that picture, wouldnt fancy my little jill down there but maybe with the larger burrows a big strong hob could be used?

[king 11,664]

Rattdog; Most of us here are british, mate. Thus we have little or no concept of what a Pocket Gopher even is or looks like.

 

Personally, I've handled a few 'Gopher Traps' and, judging by the tiny, weak killing jaws, it seems to me a ferret would smash gophers with a single bite.

 

Having said that; How fast can a gopher move? I mean, if they have a jill ferret coming after them and are as easily killed as your traps suggest; Could they get out of her way fast enough? Would they exit their holes? What do they do when ye smoke them?

 

Give us some more hands on details of what your gophers do. Then maybe we can better surmise what 'our' ferrets would do to them

what do you think about using a wild polecat breed to a ferret to give it more aggresion ditch or catching young wild polecats and bringing them up to age and using them it would be an interesting thing to get in to if you had the time and of course if you had the pocket gophers around your area ..country.. and had some wild polecats and ferrets

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

King; The whole question of infusing wild polecat blood, or even testing pure polecats, has been done to death over the years, mate. Bottom line is that ye end up with something so fast and manic it's of no earthly use to man or beast.

 

Think of it this way; Ye want to go out of a night and sneak a few rabbits, maybe off the lamp. What are ye going to take with ye? Well bred Lurker? Or just import a fresh Candian Timber Wolf and put a slip lead on That thing and expect it to retrieve live to hand? See? And that is why man has cultivated the Ferret for thousands of years.

 

Now the warriors are perfectly welcome and entitled to try and rubbish that view. Stating what their friends mates achieved, etc. But just look around ye: We all use ferrets. We Don't use polecats. Just maybe there's a sound, factual reasoning behind all that?

 

 

Back to these Gophers. Fasinating little b*stards! I've had proper, purpose made Gopher Traps in my hands. Tiny, almost delicate little things. Little killing pincers that give the immpression one could murder a Gopher with a pair of eyebrow tweezers! Two match sticks, at a pinch (No pun intended).

 

No, sorry, I really don't know. I'm not about to sit here at my key board and try to cook up some elaborate theory either. I genuinely, simply haven't a clue what might happen if a ferret was sent after them. Only one way to find out, obviously .....

 

Regards the more general question of destroying rats? After years of running out of willing ferrets, I now have a Smoker. Only thing that ever runs out of is petrol. I guess it's all down to Mission Statement: If ye doing it for sport? Go with ye ferrets and all that that entails. But, if ye simply Must kill every rat in a huge bank side? Gas the b*stards.

 

Gophers? I'll leave it to the man with the Gophers to gain some hands on experiance and come back here and enlighten us all on that one

[Guest rattdog]

most gophers are 7 and 1/2 inches long from head to tail with a muscular upperbody for digging and bulldozing dirt and thier teeth are much like a rats but they are in front of the lips so as they chew and dig they dont get dirt in thier mouth. they are prey for badgers,coyotes,and weasels. but Im alittle uneducated on the difference between a weasle and a ferret they look the same . I trapp gophers for a land owner here and these little monsters can can move alot of dirt, and they can seriously pock a landscape with mounds. I open up a main burrow sometimes and let my terrier dig at the one of the openings sometimes you'll get an aggressive gopher and he'll show up to defend his burrow and my terrier snatches him out the hole and rags him and thats it. but Im looking for a better way to hunt them for sport I may get myself a hob and locating collar and give it a try, I may give the hob a try on the ground squirrels too they are a real problem around here. they construct burrows much like your rabbits do. but when I do Ill definatly post some pics. thanks for the info I appreciate it. and you guys are blessed to have a quarry animal like the euopean rabbit that warrens. all our rabbits in the states all live in brush piles and dig shallow trenches the only thing you can do is shoot them, I guess some lurchers could work well here, but I dont have one. but back to the gophers they are a prey item for weasels if that changes things any.

 

rattdog

[Hardfeather 56]

I should imagine that changes things a lot get building yaself a ferret court and have some fun!