can lost ferrets survive long term in the wild?

[Guest long-tail]

heard of lads losing them from hutches for example chances are if not found will be dead within a few days,few lads seem to be coming across them whilst out on permission doing a bit but surely they die off being to domesticated to hunt on and survive long term ?

Edited October 11, 2012 by long-tail

[BIGLURKS 874]

Had one that was an escape artist got out only one of 4 ferrets that knew how too get out went missing for a month gave up on him ended up finding him running across a field about a mile away from my house when bringing in some cows perfectly healthy

[young man 225]

my daddy lost one across the road in when he was 13 there was a house beside them fields there dog killed it 5 monthes later

[Guest long-tail]

month later even 5 month im sure few would land on their feet in a big enough warren to keep them going for a while or lucky to exit one and drop in another but not long term surely

[R.A.W 1,987]

as long as there is a natural food supply present i can't see why not. the very reason they are such a vitial part of any rabbiters team is there natural ability to hunt.

[troter58 1,711]

why not they hunt and kill i think they would soon adapt to the wild it would not starve to death only thing it had to watch out for would be dog and fox other than that would live alright atb

[R.A.W 1,987]

i'm not sure if a fox would bother a big hob. they can give a good account of themselves when needed.

[troter58 1,711]

i'm not sure if a fox would bother a big hob. they can give a good account of themselves when needed.

think it would depend on how hungry the fox was at the time atb

[hender 39]

my polecat jill got out of the new hutch the other week it was gone 7 days thought it was dead,got home from work to feed the others and it was back in the hutch with them,it looked well and it looked like it had been eating.extra mesh on the hutch now shes my best worker lol

[lurche 48]

cant see why they would struggle surely they would source everthing they needed to live

[first cross 6]

my polecat jill got out of the new hutch the other week it was gone 7 days thought it was dead,got home from work to feed the others and it was back in the hutch with them,it looked well and it looked like it had been eating.extra mesh on the hutch now shes my best worker lol

must be some ferret if it opened hutch and got back in

[R.A.W 1,987]

my polecat jill got out of the new hutch the other week it was gone 7 days thought it was dead,got home from work to feed the others and it was back in the hutch with them,it looked well and it looked like it had been eating.extra mesh on the hutch now shes my best worker lol

must be some ferret if it opened hutch and got back in

thats what i was thinking lol

[torchey 1,202]

month later even 5 month im sure few would land on their feet in a big enough warren to keep them going for a while or lucky to exit one and drop in another but not long term surely

The only problem any half decent ferret would have going alone is predators imo..

[cawleada04 4]

They can survive fine they kill rabbits the same as if you were there ferreting them. I wouldn't eat one if I was a fox.

 

If any thing is going to kill them I'd say roads and traffic.

[jcm 2,326]

Lost one while out ferreting when I was a kid which had just been mated a week prior kept going up for a few weeks could never fund it ended up walking the dog up that way a good 6 month after loosing it and hey presto 3 young albino ferrets popped outa hole went to picked one up and it was going wild and bit me ( first reaction ) I dropped it and off it went, spoke to the farmer and he loved it that I lost my ferret because there was a decrese in the rabbit population