My Mink Fang's Big Canine Teeth!

[Minkenry 1,044]

Ferrets typically have bigger canines than mink do. Mink kill their prey faster than a ferret because of their powerful jaws, not because of their unusually long teeth. My mink Fang on the other hand, has some pretty long canines for a mink! She is also the fastest, most efficient killing female mink I've ever seen. So she must have some real power to go along with those teeth!

 

 

 

 

 

It's amazing how much bigger Fang's teeth are compared to an average mink! Here's a video that shows her teeth compared to an average mink.

https://youtu.be/xZOUiCK8t3I

[Haiddheliwr 1,911]

I know what a muskrat feels like now being on the receiving end of those fangs lol

[bobza 910]

some size teeth ,I wouldn't want a bite off fang, I can see you've still got all your fingers ,how often have you been bit off fang and what sort of damage will a mink do if they grab onto your finger ? get that glove off and show us a video ,atb bobza

[jukel123 6,570]

Are those bite scars on your fingers? You are a lot tougher than I am when it comes to bites.

Maybe Fang should have been called Dracula.

Edited January 10, 2017 by jukel123

[Minkenry 1,044]

some size teeth ,I wouldn't want a bite off fang, I can see you've still got all your fingers ,how often have you been bit off fang and what sort of damage will a mink do if they grab onto your finger ? get that glove off and show us a video ,atb bobza

 

I've never been bitten by Fang, at least not in an aggressive manner. She play bites and nibbles on my fingers on a regular basis, but she is quite careful and gentle with her play bites. Her sister, on the other hand, had a very difficult time controlling her play biting. One of the reasons I selected Fang over her sister was her gentle demeanor towards me, and her ease of handling. I also liked her confident temperament and high prey drive. Out of 13 kits I picked out this spring, Fang had the second highest prey drive, and her sister was number one. Though her prey drive was noticeably higher than Fang's, her sister was quite jumpy, which I didn't like. Her nervous attitude, along with her lack of self control with her play bites, pushed me to select Fang, even though Fang was second highest in prey drive. So I sent her sister and the other mink kits on to other people, and kept Fang for myself.

 

I'll tell you what, I'm sure glad I chose fang! She is growing into such a great all round hunting companion! She's fun to be around, easy to handle, safe around other people, is able to dispatch prey faster than any other female mink I've ever seen, and step by step she seems to becoming a better hunter every day I take her out. She's far from the most aggressive hunting mink I've worked with, but she's still young (only 8 months old) and there's a chance she'll become a more aggressive hunter with time. Even if she doesn't grow up to be more a more intense hunter, she is enough mink to get the job done the way she is now. With all of her other likable traits she has, I'd be more than pleased with Fang if she continued the way she is without noticeably progressing from where she is now.

[Minkenry 1,044]

Are those bite scars on your fingers? You are a lot tougher than I am when it comes to bites.

Maybe Fang should have been called Dracula.

 

Yeah, I have bite scars all over my hands and fingers, but most of them aren't actually from mink. I don't really remember the last time one of my mink bit me hard enough for me to complain about it. I've been bitten pretty bad by other people's mink, or by a new mink that's still in training, but it doesn't usually leave much of a scar. Most of my scars are actually from muskrats. Muskrat bites really leave a mark!!!!! Beware, this video, especially the last half, is quite bloody and will be disturbing to most viewers!

Edited January 11, 2017 by Minkenry

[jukel123 6,570]

 

Are those bite scars on your fingers? You are a lot tougher than I am when it comes to bites.

Maybe Fang should have been called Dracula.

 

Yeah, I have bite scars all over my hands and fingers, but most of them aren't actually from mink. I don't really remember the last time one of my mink bit me hard enough for me to complain about it. I've been bitten pretty bad by other people's mink, or by a new mink that's still in training, but it doesn't usually leave much of a scar. Most of my scars are actually from muskrats. Muskrat bites really leave a mark!!!!! Beware, this video, especially the last half, is quite bloody and will be disturbing to most viewers!

 

Ouch!

[Haiddheliwr 1,911]

Another excellent vid you are a braver man than me! Do muskrats carry any diseases like Weil's? Look forward to the next instalment

[Minkenry 1,044]

Another excellent vid you are a braver man than me! Do muskrats carry any diseases like Weil's? Look forward to the next instalment

Actually, Weil's disease (Leptospirosis) is not common in the part of the country where I live. Weil's is more common in wet areas with mild winters, and we live in a high desert. Here in Utah it is both dry, and in the winter it is quite cold. So even among brown rats it is quite rare, possibly non existent, in my State. The only disease that a muskrat is likely to carry that I need to worry about is tularemia, and that is not very common among muskrats in general, and very rare during the winter months when I typically hunt muskrats.

[Haiddheliwr 1,911]

Very interesting answer! Thanks for that (-: THUMBS (-:

[BORDERSCOT 3,816]

Just out of interest, do you ever hunt male mink?

Are males more difficult to handle, ie, aggressive, and keep?

[Minkenry 1,044]

Just out of interest, do you ever hunt male mink?

Are males more difficult to handle, ie, aggressive, and keep?

 

 

Buck mink are actually usually easier to handle than doe mink. Buck mink are 1.74 times larger than doe mink (almost double) and also have heavier bones, larger heads, thicker necks and shoulders, as well as proportionally longer/thicker canines. This makes them significantly slower, but obviously more powerful than doe mink. I would LOVE to work with more bucks to be honest, but the vast majority of ranch bucks are so big it limits their ability to enter smaller holes. With an average or larger ranch buck I could still hunt muskrats and rabbits just fine, but I would be VERY LIMITED when it comes to hunting brown rats and smaller ground squirrels. From what I've seen so far, it seems to me that the optimal weight range for an all-round hunting mink is roughly 700-950 grams. At this size a mink is small enough to enter most brown rat holes, but big enough to man handle a big muskrat or squirrel. A mink much larger than this can't enter very many rat holes, and a mink much smaller might have some difficulty with larger prey (though a super driven and confident smaller mink would do just fine). If I had to pick a mink either 100 grams above or 100 grams below the “optimal” weight range, I would pick one 100 grams smaller, as it still has a chance of being confident enough to still hunt muskrats, but a larger one would be physically limited when hunting brown rats, regardless of how hard it tried. The average ranch buck weighs around 1400-1500 grams, whereas the average ranch doe weights 800-850 grams (these are working weights, so very lean and very fit). From what I can tell, the average working weights for wild bucks should be around 850-950 and for wild does 490-550. So if I want to work with more bucks, I would need to get my hands on some very small ranch bucks, or work some more wild mink. Where I live there are so many mink farms, that it is pretty hard to find wild mink. Most of the mink in my area are decended from escaped ranch mink. If I want to get wild mink, I have to travel to a different state where there aren't so many mink farms. Since I have lots of access to ranch mink, and limited access to mink of wild decent, the vast majority of mink I end up hunting with are female ranch mink. The best mink I’ve ever hunted with was actually a wild buck that worked at 935-955 grams. Unfortunately he was hit by a car very early on in his hunting career. Here are a couple videos of that mink....

 

https://youtu.be/pzdK8v-UHd4

 

https://youtu.be/q256c3l380U

Edited January 12, 2017 by Minkenry

[jukel123 6,570]

Brilliant videos again. The mink you have trained are much more intense and athletic than our domestic ferrets.

Do you ever lose your mink during the process of a hunt? Surely some will just make a break for freedom and to hell with returning to their box? We often lose ferrets because they kill underground and just lie up with their kill. Even with electronic ferret finders some still go missing.

We have a lot of wild mink in Scotland.They devastate local ecosystems and are difficult to eradicate. In fact some hold mink responsible for the near extinction of our native water vole.Many wild mink originate from deliberate releases of mink from mink farms by animal rights activists.As a result many rivers have lost huge numbers of mammals birds and fish. Mink farms are now illegal in the UK largely because of political pressure exerted by animal rights organisations.

 

Do your mink ever kill waterfowl? I would be interested in seeing a video of your mink hunting duck etc.

Years ago I remember my ferreting partner retrieving what he thought was a ferret locked onto a rabbit from a hole.It turned out to be a mink locked onto a very traumatised ferret. The mink quickly turned its attention to my friend

's hand.I can still remember him dancing around the field sucking his bloody wound.Over the year's I have bolted fox,stoats,weasels and once an otter from rabbit holes.Keep your videos coming. They are much appreciated this side of the pond.

[Minkenry 1,044]

Brilliant videos again. The mink you have trained are much more intense and athletic than our domestic ferrets.

Do you ever lose your mink during the process of a hunt? Surely some will just make a break for freedom and to hell with returning to their box? We often lose ferrets because they kill underground and just lie up with their kill. Even with electronic ferret finders some still go missing.

We have a lot of wild mink in Scotland.They devastate local ecosystems and are difficult to eradicate. In fact some hold mink responsible for the near extinction of our native water vole.Many wild mink originate from deliberate releases of mink from mink farms by animal rights activists.As a result many rivers have lost huge numbers of mammals birds and fish. Mink farms are now illegal in the UK largely because of political pressure exerted by animal rights organisations.

 

Do your mink ever kill waterfowl? I would be interested in seeing a video of your mink hunting duck etc.

Years ago I remember my ferreting partner retrieving what he thought was a ferret locked onto a rabbit from a hole.It turned out to be a mink locked onto a very traumatised ferret. The mink quickly turned its attention to my friend

's hand.I can still remember him dancing around the field sucking his bloody wound.Over the year's I have bolted fox,stoats,weasels and once an otter from rabbit holes.Keep your videos coming. They are much appreciated this side of the pond.

 

 

As strange as it is, I can't recall loosing a mink permanently while hunting. I've had several mink escape their cages and disappear for ever, and I've had mink get lost while hunting for extended periods of time, and then miraculously get them back days or even weeks later. But I can't think of a time I permanently lost one while hunting. I did lose a mink during a training session once, but she had only been in training for a couple weeks or so.

 

Just this morning my mink Fang got spooked by something and totally disappeared. I go hunting before work every day, so I'm out a good hour or two before the sun comes up, that way I'm not late for work. So as you can imagine, losing a black mink in the dark is pretty easy to do, though their eye shine sure does help to locate her. Anyway, I spent quite a while looking for her, and then finally asked my lurcher where the mink was. I was cussing myself for not having recently worked with my lurcher on the find the mink command, and wasn't sure she'd actually do it. My doubt in my dog actually trailing the mink when I hand't worked with her on that exercise for several months is why I waited so long before asking her to find the mink. So I started following the dog, and she led me back towards where the car was parked a good half a mile down stream from where I had last seen the mink. She got to a small pile of sticks on the opposite bank from where the car was parked, and I saw a little shining light coming from the sticks. Sure enough, there was Fang! Whatever scared her, must have scared her enough that she wanted to go home, because she ran all the way back to the car and waited for me! I was pretty happy with my dog for remembering her training I taught her as a pup, and super happy with the mink for going back to the car when she got lost!

 

I had another mink years ago named Missy that was SUPER prone to getting lost. Once Missy escaped from her cage and roamed around the neighborhood for almost a month! One day, weeks after having lost Missy, I noticed a dead rat in a pile of wood near her cage. For some reason I was moving the wood around, and under the wood I found what looked to be a mink killed rat. I was super confused at how it got there, but I didn't think much of it. Then a week or two later I had a caged wild rat near Missy's old cage, and the rat was squeaking at me, and all of a sudden a mink came running out of the bushes towards the sound of the squeaking rat! I had another mink that looked very similar to Missy, and at first I thought the other mink had gotten out. I quickly caught Missy, started towards the other mink's cage, and then noticed that cage already had a mink in it! I looked more closely at the mink I had caught, and realized it was actually my long lost Missy!

 

Another time Missy got lost while hunting at a park several miles from home. About a week later I got a call from a guy who works at the park, telling me he saw a mink in the river. I quickly drove to the park, and started calling Missy. I saw some kids and asked them if they had seen anything, and they said that they saw my mink (who they knew from previous hunts at that park) playing with another brown mink. I ran with the kids to where they had last seen her, and there was Missy hunting muskrats! The "brown mink" she was playing with was really a muskrat she was trying to catch.

 

So anyway, I can go on and on about the time I lost this mink or that, but so far I've been very lucky in being able to retrieve my mink after the hunt. I've lost all of my hunting mink at least a couple times, but so far I've been either able to find them, trap them, or they find their own way home. I guarantee you I will loose some eventually! It's just bound to happen, and not just once or twice! But so far, I've been lucky enough that I have been able to get the mink back eventually.

 

Oh, and the mink that I have lost who have escaped their cages, they were usually new mink who didn't know their way home yet (or maybe didn't care to try to find their way home, who knows), or they were mink being temporarily kept at someone else's house that the mink didn't consider home, so they just took off. Most of my mink come right back after escaping from their cages. And mink are VERY GOOD at escaping, so it does happen from time to time.

 

 

My mink do catch birds from time to time, but I've never caught it on film, at least not yet. Fang caught a duck just a week or two ago, and she almost got lucky with a big rooster pheasant earlier this week, but he managed to escape. Birds are tricky for mink to catch, and are only captured on rare occasions. A few months ago Fang did manage to take down this GIANT African goose!

 

 

The goose's neck was LITERALLY bigger than Fang's ENTIRE BODY!!! Both bigger around AND longer! It just ran off with her hanging on it's neck like a scarf! At one point the goose even began going after me and the dog WHILE FANG WAS HANGING ON ITS NECK TRYING TO KILL IT!!!! I weighed the goose when I got home and it was a whopping 13.2 lbs! (6kgs!) Fang weighs less than 2 pounds (820 grams), so that's a pretty ridiculous weight difference! But like I said before, this was a pretty rare occurrence, as mink don't catch birds of any size or species very often.

Edited January 13, 2017 by Minkenry

[Haiddheliwr 1,911]

I like the way you give a thorough detailed answer! What you do is very similar to what we do here with ferrets but you have prey that actually fight back and use an animal that is classed as vermin and a pest! I find it fascinating and totally intriguing! I find from your posts you are passionate and extremely proficient at what you do! Look forward to your next installment ATB