cannablism in ferrets ?

[willbur 3]

hi ive just checked on the young ferrets water and food and they have plenty of clean water and dry food and the pheasant bits have been eaten but only found 3 instead of 4 and then saw her remains as if she has been half eaten ? ive had ferret for a long time and never seen this before !? has anyone else ? i will say that 3 are from 1 mum and the third from another but as they are all white jills i cant tell if its the single 1 they are the same age and will be ready to work at the end of this season . its just strange that they have been ok and fed raw meat and dry with no problem would it be a fight gone wrong ? but why eat bits of her ? cheers for any help .willbur

[BenjaminCadd 109]

This is new to me, never realy heard of anything like this but would be interested if others no anyhting, i always fought they were a pack animal!

[rotton123 7]

speak to ideation on here mate or malt

[robbo 804]

it sometimes happens mate for no obvious reason. once had a jill who ate 4 of her young, just left the heads,then reared a litter of 10 without any problems the year after.i dont think it will be the other kits.

[willbur 3]

cheers these are this years kits 3 from 1 litter and 1 from another no mums at mine it just seams weird and i would like to fine out why its happened ? as i say plenty o water and food ! i really dont get it ?

[Malt 379]

Never had it happen to me, but I've heard that sometimes a sick/weak/dead animal gets eaten amongst a group of ferrets kept together.. Was there any chance that the dead one had died without you noticing?

[willbur 3]

unless it was past 2-3 pm as i kept an eye on them for water more than food but you might be on to it if she got to hot and got arseie of attacked ? as i say i dont know what happened but thank you for the info cheers

[The one 8,411]

If theres something wrong with one of them the rest seem to sense it and pile in .other than that no enough grub ,Christ knows mate could be one of a hundred reasons

[skycat 6,173]

I might hazard a guess and say that the one which was killed was not well. Though the fact that the others had eaten it, as opposed to just killing it, might indicate that they felt short of meat. I wouldn't like to feed dry food in this weather. Even with plenty of water available. Could you not feed them rabbit or pigeon? Failing that, chicken carcases and wings?

[Leeview 787]

Not just restricted to kits a very good friend was asked if they could use his hob over his jill, he was 10yr old the hob a cracking worker and sired a lot of litters, the jil was taken to the hob and left overnight, next morning there was only half the jill left with the hob

Y.I.S Leeview

[andy s410c 59]

Only happened to me once as a teenager.I had 5 ferrets in the court,bred a litter & kept a poley jill.Moved the kit in around 10-12 weeks,no problems however came in to feed them & a jill was eating the kit,head first.Thing was the jill eating it was the most placid,poor worker i'd ever had at the time.As with all ferrets i've kept they were well fed & handled,just one of them things that happens now & again

[Rake aboot 4,929]

heard of it,, and seen it, but the case there was virtually abandoned ferrets in a cage with no food,, one had eaten the other.

Can`t see it`s all that unlikely really,, if ones weakened and the others kill it,, the kill and feed instinct might be enough for them to do it !

 

ATB

[Plong 21]

Seen it with a late litter of kits, a couple where not great not ill, just not as strong as the others and after a couple of days they had gone the jill must have eaten them.

[willbur 3]

cheers will keep my eyes on um and feed more meat in the hot weather atb willber

[patterdalejoel 669]

ferrets are not pack animals, they are solitary animals that would never socialise in the wild apart from to mate.