Killers From the Very Beginning!!!

[foxdropper 17,092]

I've raised a mink with ferrets .I was out with mink hounds years ago when they found a bitch mink in a shed and killed it ,Hounds marked a pile of wood so we moved it and came across a nest of 6 kits .I grabbed one before hounds got them and as I wasn' far from where I parked I went home straight away .I had ferrets at the time in a large aviary and one of the Jill's had kits a bit older than this mink .I rolled the crying kit in the bedding and left them to it .The long and short of it was she reared the mink successfully .The games it played were a lot faster than ferret kits could keep up with a it ran up the wire with ease ,even running up my leg with trousers on .I tried it on rabbits but it killed every time to ground so outing got fewer and fewer .Some arsehole cut the wire one day and I came home to it gone but I got most the ferrets back .Only one instance I know and you have a wealth a knowledge on them mate .I can remember it screaming to defend its bit of food in a corner .That was 25 years ago .

[timmy k 571]

I knew a fella years ago who just lived for mustelids. He had a stoat ( kept in its own cage) loads of ferrets and if i remember right 6 mink. None of the mink where kept together but seperated with a bunch of ferrets for company and although thr size differnce was obvious their didnt seem any troubles and he never mentioned any. But this was over 20 years and i was a teenager so its possible i wasn't listening to anything he had to say

[Minkenry 1,044]

Yeah, I have heard of many instances where it has gone either way. The mink getting along with the ferrets just fine, all the way up to the mink killing ferrets. It just depends on the individual mink in question. I even know a guy who used to breed his ferret jills to his buck mink to get them out of heat. Because the mink couldn't impregnate the ferrets, it did essentially the same thing as a hob with a vasectomy. I also know of a guy over on your side of the pond who caught a baby mink that was following his mother and siblings along a stream. He took the little mink kit home and put it with his, "two large working hobs". He then came back to check on the mink later that day, and claims he found both hobs dead. He was so pissed off he killed the little mink and never messed with them again. That's the thing with mink, you never know what you're going to get! I've heard of mink killing a litter of border collies, half a dozen gyrfalcons in a single night, sheep, goats, fawns, house cats, all kinds of crazy stuff, and then I have seen mink so cowardly they won't attack a brown rat or even a domestic rabbit, and even are intimidated by a confident mallard duck! There is a HUGE variation of temperaments when it comes to mink!!!! My favorite saying is, mink are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get! 

Edited June 4, 2018 by Minkenry

[Dirtysailor 0]

Minkenry,

How many of the kits do you think will turn out, of the ones you keep?  With the variation you see in mink you have to assume some not making the cut.

[Minkenry 1,044]

On 20/06/2018 at 09:46, Dirtysailor said:

Minkenry,

How many of the kits do you think will turn out, of the ones you keep?  With the variation you see in mink you have to assume some not making the cut.

I have no idea. I have never bred mink before. It really depends on how picky I am and how hard I test them.