Firstly I apologise if this comes across sanctimonious. I am currently really frustrated. If you are here genuinely looking to research before breeding I apologise for any attitude in advance. Better informed breeders raise better kits. That can come with experience but only if those breeders are open to learning and growing as breeders. There are some who have been breeding a coons age and know less than a first time breeder who pays attention to their kits.
Secondly I am not writing this to encourage people to breed ferrets without lots of research BUT I’m tired of going through this with every Tom, Dick and Sally who “didn’t realize she was in season”, “thought they wouldn’t breed with [insert relative here]” or just straight out bred without doing any research. Look, I get the internets hard to know who to trust but maybe get a mentor? Or at least pick up a book so you have some idea? Heck my first introduction to breeding was in AMERICAN ferret books, and their ferrets are generally neutered by 6 weeks! And this was before the internet was much use and I knew no ferret breeders at all. Point is; a bad books better than nothing.
As an aside anyone we mentor I would expect to have picked up a book or two first anyway and be contacting more for specific advice or just to check what they've read. If there's one thing two breeders can agree on it's that a third is doing something wrong, so I cannot tell you how to do everything, what works for us doesn't necessarily work for everyone else, and every litter, jill and kit is different. We can discuss ideas, methods, what we do and why but we can't tell you if what is normal for your line (unless it is from us), how many kits to expect or whether your jill is behaving "normally" since these vary so much and we don't know your jill. Mentors are there to advise, we're not omniscient.
OK on from my rant,
IF YOU DO NOT WANT BABIES you can go to the vets and get the ALIZIN injection usually used for dogs. Up to 1-2 weeks pregnant the cell balls are not implanted, you are not hurting her and you could be saving a lot of pain long term if your jill isn’t old enough to be a mum mentally (about 9 months minimum), if the kits are inbred or if you just don’t think you can realistically raise and rehome kits to good homes. You may also need to consider the costs of raising a litter, possible vet fees and, lets be honest, there are lots of ferrets in rescues unless you have bred for health and are willing to give these babies the best start in life is it fair to bring more babies into this world? There is a reason reputable breeders spend so much time and money looking at health, bloodlines and quality time with kits, it’s because we know this and the only reason we have went into breeding is because we want to have our babies for longer, healthier lives and have the means to do so, otherwise we’d rescue.
IF YOU WANT TO HAVE THE LITTER
1. Your ferret should be fed a Good Quality Ferret Diet while pregnant and nursing. NOT cat meat, low quality cat biscuits, dog food, we’re talking ferret kibble or RAW. Anything else should be as a treat.
2. Your ferret will be due 6 weeks from breeding. If she’s been with the male for an extended period you can go from when you saw a tie, or 5.5 weeks after you’ve seen she’s come out of season, I can’t magic up a due date you have to have actually paid some attention here. You can get her scanned from 4 weeks to confirm pregnancy, later scans may be able to give you and idea of numbers.
3. She NEEDS somewhere quiet to nest. We’re talking a small hutch with a nice enclosed bed, breeders who use open cages often put the nest in a cardboard box. For goodness sake limit her space because you do not want her moving her babies to a different nest site every few hours. That’s when kits get lost or hurt falling from hammocks or older kits accidentally over groomed/bit because mums stressed out. Remove tunnels at the same time. Don’t worry about exercise space, as she gets closer to due date, she’ll get more and more sleepy and lazy.
Speaking of which she needs quiet, she needs routine, she needs to be confident in her situation. If she’s scared, she can have problems in labour, nursing or even kill the babies.
Don’t keep her with a boy and I would recommend separating jills too, if you don’t split girls make sure you’ll be able to tell babies apart from different mums.
4. She will probably blow her coat and have a truly awful looking shed, it’s normal
5. Discharge is normal as long as it doesn’t smell or have any bright colour. You should expect a show between 1 and 2 weeks and around 5 weeks in particular. This second show is the mucus plug, it can be stringy and is a sign that the cervix is opening for labour and can happen from 7-3 days before labour
6. Signs of imminent labour are mainly nest building followed by a restlessness and dislike of being out of the nest. More immediate labour signs are repeatedly running to the toilet and straining
7. If she tells you to get out the nest, if she seems stressed etc get out and if you need to check her lure her out somehow.
8. DO NOT let her go past 7 weeks without vet help, even if it’s just a check. 9/10 jills who go over a week overdue need a c-section.
9. While you’re at it make sure you know your emergency vet in your area, and your reproduction specialist in your area. They will probably be different people, heck your repo specialist may be a dog breeder. Fact is most vets don’t see new-born animals all that often and can’t tell you what’s normal, and don’t always have the experience to guide you through a difficult birth.
10. Keep an eye out for nervous behaviour, glassy eyes, shallow breathing, unproductive labour or unresponsiveness both before and after labour. If she stops having contractions without babies or while still obviously carrying, she might need a little help to restart contractions or she might just need a small break, we would check in an hour and if there was no change it’d be get in a taxi time.
11. Get yourself a small syringe, milk formula and a heat pad just in case. I’m a firm believer in if something will go wrong it’ll probably happen if you’re unprepared.
12. You can only 100% know she is done by getting her scanned. A experienced person can palpitate most jills to check she is empty but some jills are either too muscular or too fat to be certain with this method. There’s also an element of practice, a swollen womb might feel like, or hide, a kit if the person doesn’t know what they are feeling. To be honest, even if she is done you should leave her alone to bond with her babies. Just check in every few hours to see she and babies are ok and you can try and palpitate her the next day. There will be weeks to cuddle, sex and otherwise look at the babies, no rush.
13. AFTER THE BIRTH expect discharge for a week or longer. Jills are normally clean but it’s not unusual for them to have discharge while the womb contacts and cleans itself. If it’s bright coloured or there’s seems too much (i.e. like she’s bleeding) or it smells bad get to the vet. When it comes to touching kits take it at her pace and be aware if she gets too stressed, she might kill the babies and come back into season.
14. Kits aren’t dead until warm and dead, or blood has pooled in their nails. If you have dead babies you must remove them, or you could end up with all the babies getting ill. It will probably upset mum so do it when she’s not looking. Dead babies will look pale, flat and likely be pushed out or to the edge of the nest
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