Bosun11 537 Posted July 8, 2015 Report Share Posted July 8, 2015 Do you all start working your ferrets..? With the current 'hot' topic about the working ferrets future and slap bang in the middle of kit season, I was thinking about the age most serious ferreters on here will start this years youngsters? As was discussed on the workers future thred, we know that all ferrets do not make good workers, or even workers at all...! So with that in mind, what age do you start and what steps do you take, both bringing the youngsters on and entering them. And is it all nature, lines and blood, or is it a big slap of nurture and how they are brought on too? Quote Link to post
ruggers13 268 Posted July 8, 2015 Report Share Posted July 8, 2015 ive got my first kits this year their 15 weeks old at the moment im going to start working them when we start in september, i use tubes to get them used to the tunnels in the burrow then i stick my hand in so when were ferreting n i put my hand down hopefully they wont bite as to is it all natural most of it is when you enter them in the burrows they'll either work or wont atb 1 Quote Link to post
rabbit demon 301 Posted July 8, 2015 Report Share Posted July 8, 2015 Around 9 weeks i have them going into tubes in the garden. Dont need to train them for that they root through them themselves. Then i get a fresh rabbit skin and flirt it with them in the tubes and hide it on them so they have to use their noses. Good fun for them and its a bit of exercise. Also its building up their natural attacking/killing and tracking skills they would get if they were in the wild off their mother. Its getting them used to being handled while being excited biting the skin which is good nip training in itself. Couple of months of that brings them on good. My hobs see their first burrow between 5 and 6 months and do really well on their first season. Some hunt the first time out and others need a few times out. I hold the jills back till at least 8 months till they are more grown 3 Quote Link to post
rabbit demon 301 Posted July 8, 2015 Report Share Posted July 8, 2015 They have to be nurtured but it has to be in their nature too to kill and hunt. I had a ferret with no prey drive. Would just just mooch round the burrows but would never strike. Even live rabbits in the nets he wouldnt touch. Throw a dead rabbit in the hutch he would scoff the lot. Bolted plenty but never bit them. Dont have him anymore. Have his brother who is one of the best iv owned yet.can work big warrens single handed. 2 Quote Link to post
Phil Lloyd 10,736 Posted July 8, 2015 Report Share Posted July 8, 2015 (edited) Some ferrets are born to the job,...even as babes they will go in for the kill,.effect a hold and hang on for dear life... Mind you, a powerful adult buck, will invariably pull them along the tunnel and usually break free,..but the best of tyro workers will just 'keep on coming'...nothing will stop his natural aggression... However,...with an average kind of young ferret, I have found it best to wait, until they can handle themselves and have a bit of power in the jaws and a good bodyweight to back it all up... Some ferrets can be turned into quitters if they get an early hammering amidst the chalk and flint.... But,.as stated,...I am always looking for a tough type,...they just make the rabbiting job so much easier... Edited July 9, 2015 by Phil Lloyd 5 Quote Link to post
Arry 18,862 Posted July 11, 2015 Report Share Posted July 11, 2015 Hi The 2 kits I bought last year were born early May both jills, at 3 months I went out and shot a rabbit I pushed dead rabbit (still warm) into a length of 100mm flexi pipe and put it in there exercise run. Then put the kits in the run and watched in about 15 minutes they got it, once you see them bitting behind the ears of the rabbit you know you have them switched on. Whey were working in September on the second trip I had 4 full grown rabbit by my self. They are both crackers. When in the run I whistle the same every day then feed some strips of meat this helps with handling. I think if they were wild they have to be hunting at about 3 months. Their exercise run on my lawn is 2 meters by 1meter by .500 they also get to run around on the lawn but they are rascals and got into the boundary hedge more than once. If there out on the lawn watch your ferrets tail the hair go sticking out like flue brush they start to dance around and chitter they flick you the V's and run off thinking its a great game. Cheers Arry Quote Link to post
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