slight problem

[knocker 0]

took the two young jills out this morning, first time out, 5 digs later...............they bolted one :clapper: i hope they get better soon or i'll have arms like sodding popeye digging the buggars out my fat git hob (who ate all the pies then) managed to squeeze himself down a few holes and bolted 7.....hoorah :clapping: :clapping: he then collapsed in the mouth of a hole and fell asleep ! going again tomorrow to see if the jills do any better, the hob is on a diet and an exercise regime that would make rocky bilboa think twice

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

took the two young jills out this morning, first time out, 5 digs later...............they bolted one

 

 

PMSL at all this! F*ckin sort it out, Knocker! What in hell were ye digging all those holes for, mate?! Do we take it there were dead rabbits at the bottoms of them? Or were ye just, perhaps, a little over eager to adjust the landscape? Seriously; Please come back here and explain all that.

 

Only, if they were killing and staying, I can't help but think ye may be a little out of balance with ye feeding regimen. And as for:

 

 

my fat git hob (who ate all the pies then) managed to squeeze himself down a few holes and bolted 7..... he then collapsed in the mouth of a hole and fell asleep !

 

 

I can't wait to tell someone about that! Funniest thing I've ever heard about ferreting!

 

But, again, it rather points the finger of suspicion at ye feeding habits, no?

 

Never mind. Give us some more details and I'm sure the collective minds and experiance gathered here will come up with some ideas for ye. " Fell asleep "

[knocker 0]

hi ditch, sorry, should have explained a bit better, yes the digs were the result of kills but only two were backed up, the other three were where the two jills had met with a bunny between them, probably just coincidence ! as for the hob, i suspect he may be a bit under the weather, he seems a bit listless today..a bit,well, tired i guess you'd say...having said that though, he never has been the liveliest of ferts since i took him in from another owner. he works well enough but has no stamina, i'm hoping he just needs to work a bit more ofton as i think he was more of a pet with the previous owner, the same with the jills, they came off the same bloke....all in all, i'm quite happy with them for their first outing.

 

as for my feeding regime, fresh meat every night at around 10.pm, rabbit if i have some, if not, FRESH turkey,chicken,beef,steak but not lamb or pork....they also get a drop of watered down milk once a week as a treat and some egg every now and again......i also leave a small bowl of dry food during the day just in case they get peckish, this is usualy all but full most days......so i firmly believe my feeding is spot on (i know you hate dry but i see it as a daytime snack for them...just like a choccy bar is for you, it's shit but serves a purpose)

 

i wonder if the hob is eating his fill early morning instead of night time, maybe he was full when i took him out at 4.30 yesterday ? and he just wanted to sleep ? i might try feeding them a bit earlier. i couldn't go this morning so i don't know if they would have performed better

 

ps, i still think he's a bit fat though, yesterday was the first time he worked while i've had him, i reckon he's around 2 years old

[gibby 0]

Sounds like your doing everything right mate. I dont feed dry very often myself though. Perhaps you could stop free feeding it for a while and see if your hob tones up a bit? But to each his own

 

Some days are worse than others for having to dig, and some ferrets have more of a tendency than others. One time I was ferreting and only bolted 3 rabbits out of 11 or 12 or something like that, and dug to the rest. And other times I have been out with the same ferrets and not had to dig once. Its just like that sometimes.

 

But anyway well done mate not sure on the total but I make it 5+1+7= 13 rabbits? Thats pretty bloody good for their first time out well done

[knocker 0]

thanks gibby, now you put it like that 5+1+7, i'm quite chuffed now, thats pretty good for the new team

 

the dry that i leave in is just a handfull in a small bowl, thats all they ate when the other chap had them so it's taken a while to get them off it as a complete food source, i prefer to feed meat for the main feed but still think i should provide something to snack on.....right or wrong it makes me happy and the ferts don't mind either, they still love me

[marko 30]

f***ing hell they get better fed than me any room in that hutch for one more little fat fella.

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Hullo, mate. Found my way back to this one. Yeppers, ye dead right about me despising All 'complete diet' / dry shit, for Dogs or ferrets. But then, if people wanted to train their children to smoke Capstan Full Strength before they could spell their own names, what would I be able to do about it?

 

Anyway, I'm with Gibby on taking the bowl of 'treats' away. And here's the killer; I'd say as much too, even if ye said ye had a chill cabinet in there and left them a rabbit leg to pick at, if they got hungry during the day.

 

See; This has nothing to do with my hatred of that shit. It's a simple matter of nature and husbandry. Stepping from my pet hate to my pet model: Look at Nature.

 

In the wild, a 'ferret' (or polecat) is lucky to get a square meal a day. And he'll bloody well have to work for it if he hopes for it. He's got to get up, get out there and Work for that meal. Once he's had a good one, he's happy. If he gets a tremendous one, he can flake out and sleep it off as he digests it. But then he has to start again the moment he feels peckish. Roaming about searching for the next meal.

 

Ditch Shitter eats only once a day. He doesn't eat chocholate or anything else between that daily meal either. Thus there's not an ounce of fat on his stinking body. He also works damn hard between those meals. Thus, compared to some office wallah who has breakfast, then a Big Mac for lunch and comes home after a hard days holding a chair down with his arse, to eat a full dinner, there's no gut or fat on the lean one.

 

Ye ferrets should live like me. Instead, ye allowing them to live like Estate Agents.

 

Ruminant herbivours graze. Ferrets don't

[ferret15 0]

ye allowing them to live like Estate Agents.

 

Edited August 28, 2007 by ferret15