I get asked this quite a lot, so I thought I'd make a page, we believe in being holistic, i.e. looking at the overall picture and providing a natural approach to mental and physical well being.  This does not mean we don't use conventional medicine but that we believe balance is in order.  Let medicine be thy food and food be thy medicine, in essence.

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Every litter is different, and reaches different milestones at a different rate so this outline is very flexible to the individual kit, litter and mother.

Breeding a jill starts when she’s a kit herself which is why we only breed from jills we know where they came from (that and it makes sure we know who she’s related to), so I'll start with how we prepare a jill and go on through to when the kits are re-homed. 

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First, our jills must be healthy and sound in temperament, once that’s been settled we start building them up so they're strong.  We feed raw meat, eggs, lots of bones, plenty of organ meat (mainly liver but whatever we can get, one old hob I had used to love venison brain.  A balanced raw diet must have at least 5% liver though so either way, mainly liver) and plenty of heart meat all in a balanced diet, plus plenty of whole raw game from the moment we get them ensuring strong bones and healthy bodies.  By the time they come into season they are perfect weight and I know we have done all we can to make things go smoothly for them.  We generally only breed a jill once in her life, usually around 3 years of age.  This allows us to get to know what a normal season and phantom is for her body and for us to build a good relationship with her.

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For our boys it is just as important that they come from known healthy lines and are healthy and good natured but they do not need as much in way of upkeep.  Their bodys are not going to be under stress by having babies.  That said they still get the best food and upkeep we can, plenty of friends and plenty of space (most of our buys live together full time) and need to pass the health tests.  At present all our ferrets (hobs and jills) are expected to pass routine examination, worm counts, random blood work and be free from any developmental abnormalities.  As of 2020 however we have started to introduce BAER testing to the tests that a ferret must pass to enter the breeding program.

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Once a jills in season we keep her in for about a week to make sure she’s fully in and ready to mate then put her into a small cage with her stud.  Ferrets can be pretty rough in courtship so by limiting space we limit how far she can be dragged.  He'll stay in their sometime between a week and three days by which time she should be visibly coming out of season.  Then my boy goes back into the boys’ cage and the girl goes into a nursery cage, if she’s to be paired with a surrogate (which we do quite often) then they will be housed together then.

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She'll start to get extra food at about 3 weeks in and usually start showing at about 4 weeks, even jills having phantoms sometimes show and some pregnant jills don't show so they keep you on your toes.  While pregnant and lactating, I provide lots of duck wings in the food because they have lots of calcium and fat.  At 4 weeks I'll set up the nest with a nesting pouch (that I make) and a variety of bedding so she can make a nest then get her used to me going into the nest and my scent being in there.  This is vital in case we need to take out babies for whatever reason, we don't want her to abandon or kill the kits because there’s a scent there she isn't used to.  We also start worming mums at 4 weeks through to re-homing of the kits.  The type of wormer we use is mixed into their morning food, so mum is wormed as are the babies the moment they start to eat solids, though they get a much smaller does since they cannot eat as much.  Worming in this manner helps to stop mum from passing round worm on to her kits at any time during pregnancy and lactation.  Although we've never had worms in our ferrets we keep this routine up to be certain and give our kits their best chance and check randomly with a worm count.  We split our mother and surrogate well in advance of birthing so she gets the chance to work on her own first and I can know which kits are hers if the surrogate is also pregnant.

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At 6 weeks (give or take a few days) she'll give birth.  There’s this heart stopping excitement that hits you when you hear the quite squeaking meeps from the nest.  Somehow, I contain myself and go speak to the mum.  If she's receptive and happy with it I will then go and look in the nest.  If she lets me touch them, I'll count and possibly sex them depending on whether we get the time.  We don't put mum in the run until the babies are 3 days old when they can hold their temperature. Cages don't mix in the run at this stage as we don't want to stress out mums when their hormones are all over the place.

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We start to handle and nip train from the moment mum is comfortable with them being handled (normally day 1) so apart from testing you they are as far nip trained as possible at their new home.  We highly advise you to keep up with nip training throughout their lives however.

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When the babies are a week old their colours start to come in.  By 3 weeks they start to eat some of the raw meat mum has been putting in the nest and escape the nest (usually to go to the toilet which they find by smell or mum dragging them) eating everything they find on the way.  Once the babies are 4.5 weeks old their eyes start to open, and we accept visitors from their new homes, reservations are taken at this point.  Now we start to give the kits every type of kibble, raw meat and wet food we can find to reduce chances of fussy eating later in life.  The kits get one on one time and group time inside to play, we provide chew toys, balls, pipes and tug toys for them to play with and let them get used to all our other pets (dogs, cats, guinea pigs and birds).  Mums can now go in the run together to play.  We now raise our kits partially inside which we have found makes certain aspects of raising them easier so once they get to this age they can interact with our cats and dogs under supervision.  They are already used to the smells of these pets, so this is just the next step.  We also have other pets who would be prey to ferrets in the wild.  Obviously, they cannot interact with these pets too much but by handling the kits with the scent of these pets on our hands we increase the difficulty of their nip training making them better handlers. ​

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We take elements from protocols such as Puppy Culture and Avidog, scientific research from my interest in behaviour and development and 15 years of experience in ferrets of different backgrounds to raise our kits in the best way that we possibly can.  Most of this comes into play once they are active and bright eyed.

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Once the kits eyes are all open we do sound desensitization with them, and surface desensitization.  These are both environmental stresses that can cause stumbling blocks for ferrets when they are in new situations, so we like to remove this from our kits at this early age, helping them to be more friendly and outgoing when fully grown. 

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At 6 weeks we start to get visits from local kids to get them used to children too.  We also have litters socializing together and visits from daddy(s) who get to play with them, they're also sturdy enough to play with the cats and dogs at this age.  It's often at this age that we begin to flea treat them (as a precaution).  We also start to let them have some outside time at this point, in the run helping them get used to outside noises and smells in a more alien environment. Advanced kits might even begin "field tripping" in the carrier or begining harness training over the next couple of weeks.

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At around 8 weeks, no earlier my kits are developed enough to go to new homes.  I put all my kits together and they get to stay with one of my jills (maybe mum, maybe an aunt or granny) and sometimes a hob too depending on how everyone’s doing.  Despite them being ready we do not allow our kits go before 9 weeks so that we can give them that extra bit training and observation before they leave.

 

When they get collected they leave with a week’s base kibble to help them settle or a tub of meat depending on the diet choice of the new owner, a small bottle of Gold Oil, and as much advice as you can ask, as well as a "Kit Kit" containing litter sent on a blanket or bedding, cat litter, info on ferret husbandry, birth certificate, paperwork including microchip info and 30 days free insurance, and toys.  Our kits leave feritage registered, if you do not transfer this into your name it does eventually get removed from the database so please be sure to look into this.