question

[Guest trill]

i have a BEW jill and want to know how to breed more BEWs, ive bred her before to a dark polecat and get half silvers and half polecats in the litter but ive never had another BEW. i know you shouldn't breed them together or to another silver so what would be my best option and give me more of a chance of getting a couple of BEWs. Cheers anyway

[ferreterno1 0]

i thought it was ok to put silvers over black eyed whites

[Guest Bigbob]

What would you get from a albino over a B.E.W. then???

[Guest trill]

i thought it was ok to put silvers over black eyed whites

i can remember reading a article by Les White i think in the countrymans a few years back and i am sure it said you shouldnt put silver to BEW or silver to silver i may be wrong.

 

What would you get from a albino over a B.E.W. then???

i thought i was asking the question or it that the answer?

Edited November 1, 2006 by trill

[Kay 3,709]

I have always been under the impression breeding silver x silver produces a lethal gene , or thats how i understand it, the few silver ferret i have had prooved to be a pain behaviour wise & i also suspected the 2 jills i had were deaf

[Guest MOLLY]

Trill, i think its ok to put one of her offspring back over her as long as they havent been too closely bred to begin with. So perhaps one of her polecat offspring may produce?

MOLL.

[The Ferret Tamer 1]

Hi

 

Yes Les White went into genetics quite deeply and IMHO he new what he was talking about.

 

Its all in the genes.

 

To get the silver colour it is a defective gene in the ferrets DNA and this causes the problems, worse case scenario a type of cerebal palsy, which is not nice to see or to deal with also behaviourial problems and a shortend life span through to the more minor defects such as deafness, blindness and joint problems.

 

This does not happen in all cases but enough to cause concern. In silver/BEW a shortened life expectancy is the norm.

 

Through my own reserch I have concluded that it is usually ok to put an unrelated Polecat over a BEW or silver, but I have also heard that putting a sandy to a silver gets the same results, I have not done much investigation on that one.

 

I myself would put a albino over her to dilute the silver gene but you would still have a chance of a BEW.

 

There is a man I know who does breed BEWs a Derick Webster, who has been breeding BEWs for years now and most of his ferrets breed true to type but that has come after years and years of selective breeding.

 

These are my opinions only, if I can answer any of your questions I will just pm or post.

 

The Ferret Tamers Wife.

[Phil Lloyd 10,739]

What would you get from a albino over a B.E.W. then???

 

WE regularly use a Black eyed White over a White ferret,...this will produce a few kits with the dark eyes.

Not experienced any problems from this method...

All the best,..Chalkwarren...

[Guest trill]

cheers for the replies

[Guest peter]

cheers for the replies

hi lads dont now much about ferrets but [bANNED TEXT] does a bew look like

[Guest trill]

hello mate its a white ferret with black eyes :thumbs-up: