Breeding Ferrets

[Netter 0]

In the years I've bred ferrets I have only ever had either Polecat Sandy or Albino coloured young ones, All I was wondering was how the other colourations come about? like Silver and Black Eyed White? Just interested thats all.

[gnipper 6,858]

Silver was probably just luck I would imagine, apparently you can get BEW from breeding a silver with an albino but not guaranteed.

[stubby 175]

its all to do with recesive or dominant gene's,

used to breed exhibition budgerigars, and comes in useful to know, but forgotten most of it now, but silvers are bred from using 1 silver and anything else, you'll get a mixture from the offspring, cant remember the percentage, but this year breed 2 silver jills, both to the same albino hob,

 

now no albino young, so albino must be recessive

but did produce, silvers and polecat's

silver is therefore dominant, which is why you shouldent pair 2 silvers together

 

the polecat must mean either the silvers or albino are splits (either one's had polecat parentage, dont know parentage)

 

but my youngsters which ive kept 5 off,

a hob and jill silver and

2 jill and hob polecat, all of which could be split for albino/silver or polecat, we wont know untill next year when i intend to breed the 2 mum jills plus a couple of the daughters, with an un related sandy hob,

 

even then its gonna get confussing

[Netter 0]

silver is therefore dominant, which is why you shouldent pair 2 silvers together

 

Why shouldn't you pair two silver's because they are dominant?

[Guest bigredbusa]

so what will i get crossing a albino to a sable ? just a mish mash i suppose?

[stubby 175]

silver is therefore dominant, which is why you shouldent pair 2 silvers together

 

Why shouldn't you pair two silver's because they are dominant?

 

breeding 2 silvers together is a bit like marrying ya sister, its gonna start producing bits that you dont want, thats not to say it aint done, Im only saying this from my days breeding the budgie's, as breeding 2x dominant's will increase a factor that you want in the offspring, so if you had small ferts, it would (fingers crossed) keep the strain small, but on the downside, any factors that you dont like, would also be getting doubled up so to speak, so people tend to breed dominant to recessive, trying to get a healthy litter with 50% of what they want

of course people that dont know about dominant or recessive genes or those that aint too bothered, will through no fault of there own, pair two dominants together, be it ferrets or any other animal, sometimes they may get away with it, but look back to this summers post's and read how many people put up post's saying " jill has just eaten all the young" and replies of " the mums know if there's something wrong with kits"

unless you know the parentage/grand parents etc of a ferret, you'll never gonna have all this information, and therefore undesirable matings will happen, but keeping some sort of breeding register, will help you down the line if you intend to breed yearly,

there's nothing wrong with in line breeding (related pairs) just dont go to close, to oftend, every now and again, chuck in an outcross (unrelated blood)

 

this is all stuff that i learnt from budgerigars, some on here will have the view its all a load of bo**ocks,

everyone to there own, if theres a particular pair you wanna breed, go for it, the worst that can happen, is you loose a litter

[stubby 175]

so what will i get crossing a albino to a sable ? just a mish mash i suppose?

 

lets say albino is recessive, Ive got no idea weather sable is dominant or recessive

 

so lets say its recessive too

now the complicated bit, kicks in, cos 2 recessives carrying the same colour gene, becomes dominant (see why a register/bookeeping is needed)

keeping it simple, if your albino is pure albino, and sable pure sable, you'd get 50% albino and 50% sable offspring

 

if however either one had a differnt parent down the line somewhere (presuming sable is recessive) then your sable would be classed as a split (carrying another colour, but not showing it) lets say, the sable had a albino grandad, this recessive gene stays hidden, untill it meets another recessive gene (your sable's mating to an albino) therefore it becomes dominant in your pairing, and you'd get 75% albino and 25% sable offspring, but these sable's would be splits (carrying albino)

 

see how confussing it gets, and thats assuming that sable is recessive, if its dominant, its a whole different calculation,

real pulling hair out stuff,

which is why i say unless you wanna loose all your hair like me, just pair them up and see what happens, the above post saying worst that can happen isint really the point, as if 2x dominant factors were bred, and survived, you may have a great looking ferret, thats twice as small as his parents, which is what you wanted, but what hidden (internal) faults have been bred in there too, weak heart or something etc etc, and if these are then used again in the following years breeding, your increasding BOTH good and bad points in a breeding line

[stubby 175]

Silver was probably just luck I would imagine, apparently you can get BEW from breeding a silver with an albino but not guaranteed.

 

from this, i would say that BEW is a recessive, we already know silver is dominant

so pairing 1st generation silver to albino, wouldent produce BEW offspring, but those offspring could be split BEW

therefore the following year you would breed father to daughter, mother to son, BEW would then be produced

 

but thats only if the 1st pairing of silver to albino, has one of them as a split BEW

[Kay 3,709]

Do many get BEW from birth as i always thought they were silvers who loose the silver guard hairs they moult each season ?

[stubby 175]

dont want you thinking im spamming this post, but its got my mind buzzing now, back to breeding strains etc

 

the quote of breeding albino to silver may give BEW, but not guranteed, shows how the non keeping of records, or the not knowing about dominant/recessive factors play a part in breeding

 

lets say someone had a BEW that they paired to an albino

this BEW was bred with one parent being an albino, therefore the BEW is split albino,

 

so on this mating, albino's would be produced, but they would be splits(carrying the BEW gene)

this would account for non knowers saying, its not guranteed

 

but, if in the following year, 2 of the offspring were paired together, the 2 BEW split genes would meet, forming a dominant and therefore producing BEW's

again giving us the quote; silver to albino can give BEW but not guranteed

 

Im presuming this quote is because in the past, someone has either or not produced BEW

so im saying BEW is a recessive gene

 

anyone out there, that has a BEW that they paired to an albino or silver in the hope of getting BEW's but not got any, breed the youngsters together next year!!!!

or give me one of the offspring (splits) and Ill try it

[stubby 175]

Do many get BEW from birth as i always thought they were silvers who loose the silver guard hairs they moult each season ?

 

a silver will always be silver, Ive got a silver here, thats almost white, and could quite easily be mistaken for a BEW, this again would account why its hard to produce BEW, if the bew's that people have, are in fact, silvers

 

thats it, my hairs coming out in clumps with all these calculations

[Netter 0]

Cheers stubby

[Kay 3,709]

Do many get BEW from birth as i always thought they were silvers who loose the silver guard hairs they moult each season ?

 

a silver will always be silver, Ive got a silver here, thats almost white, and could quite easily be mistaken for a BEW, this again would account why its hard to produce BEW, if the bew's that people have, are in fact, silvers

 

thats it, my hairs coming out in clumps with all these calculations

 

So what is a silver ferret who has shed the silver leaving a light coat & dark eyes

[stubby 175]

Do many get BEW from birth as i always thought they were silvers who loose the silver guard hairs they moult each season ?

 

a silver will always be silver, Ive got a silver here, thats almost white, and could quite easily be mistaken for a BEW, this again would account why its hard to produce BEW, if the bew's that people have, are in fact, silvers

 

thats it, my hairs coming out in clumps with all these calculations

 

So what is a silver ferret who has shed the silver leaving a light coat & dark eyes

 

 

ITS STILL A SILVER

kay, your really trying to make me go totally bald aint ya

[andy s410c 63]

Any chance of that info being put into laymans terms Stubby