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Post by rm320 on May 9, 2012 16:26:54 GMT -5
Thanks for the advice, everyone. I've had ferrets for 5 years.
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Post by Sherry on May 9, 2012 16:33:51 GMT -5
It's good to know you've grown up with them how many ferrets do you and your parents have now?
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Post by Deleted on May 9, 2012 16:38:05 GMT -5
That's great! Have you ever owned a breeder ferret? They are a WHOLE different ball game. You should check out the thread "Living with an intact hob." It's very informations and shows what it's like to have a boy hob in season. The intact female will also need to be brought out of heat each year, either through mating her, jill jab, deslorelin implant, v-hob, or spaying.
Why would you like to breed ferrets? Babies are cute and all, but that's what pictures are for.
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Post by Deleted on May 9, 2012 16:43:27 GMT -5
And i agree with the others, It was 500 $ for surgery on my poor little Rob who had to be put down. We had 5 ferrets just october and now we have four. Overall little Rob's surgery was 596$ including the checkup and the fee for his prolapse that happened AT the vet. Imagine buying a 400$ ferret or two, that is 800$ off the bat. Then include yearly vet expenses which is another 60$ per ferret. That is 920$ after owning the ferret(s) for a year. This does NOT include vet expenses such as accidents, ER vet can be up to 200$ just for the "burden" of emergency care. That does not include the actual care of the ferret such as internal bleeding or broken bones. that can be another 100$ or 200$. So if you have the ferret for 1 year, that would be a total of 1220$ or 1320$ and this does not count as they are just estimates. And all of this is just BEFORE breeding. Then you have to think about care along the lines of feeding. If the ferret is already eating raw meat when you become into the care of the intact ferret(s), would you really want to switch it to kibble? Kibble can be bought by bags of 40LB for 75$ online. However these kibbles are cheap because they aren't even good kibbles. Meat would be about 7$ a week for a single ferret if you just buy a chicken. so 14$ a week to feed the ferret only chicken. Then you have to add the other things that provide taurine so you might have to go to the butcher to get organs other then muscle. that may be another 5-9$ so you are paying 24 ish dollars a week for your ferrets. Once you get into breeding you have to go to the vet first to make sure the ferrets that you have are good for breeding, then once the ferrets have been mated you have to take them to the vet again to make sure there are no problems to start. In about a month or so you have to take the Jill back to the vet to see if she has kits. If she does, you will then have to prepare the Jill for kits and getting meat. The jill needs to have more food then average because she will be carrying anywhere from 1-12 kits at a time!! I'm just giving my own input and ideas. PLEASE feel free to correct me breeders! I don't breed ferrets. I have 4 ferrets and i know the costs. I have never seen an intact ferret nor have i tried to breed Just my opinions. Please be assured that you can accept the costs and have plenty of money, don't keep a tight budget! and lastly, GOOD LUCK!!!
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Post by crazylady on May 9, 2012 18:04:52 GMT -5
thats just feeding mom the fun begins once the kits hit 3 weeks ! for the first week for a small litter your looking at 1 pound of meat mushed up per day split into four meals along with goats milk or kitten replacer and eggs week 2-3 it goes up to 1 1/2 pound a day plus milk and from 4 weeks on your looking at 2-3 pounds meat per day plus milk depending on appetites I have seen a litter of six kits and mum aged 6 weeks strip a whole rabbit clean over night and still be hungry the next morning so make sure your freezer is well stocked lol and remember what goes in has to come out they make a lot of poop ! lol take care bye for now Bev
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Post by joan on May 9, 2012 18:44:23 GMT -5
I receive several inquiries every year from people who think they want to breed ferrets...breeders who advertise and/or have websites get so many that most just delete them. I always answer them, even ones like this one.
First of all, why do you want to breed ferrets? No, I'm not going to tell you the acceptable reasons. Second, is your vet experienced with ferret reproduction and all the potential problems? If not, you'd better be or have an experienced breeder close by to help when/if needed. Do you know how to care for the pregnant jill, how to set up a whelping cage, how to properly socialize and train the kits, how to evaluate potential buyers, what needs to go in a sales contract, and are you sufficiently knowledgeable and experienced with intact ferrets to help the buyers of your kits with all the problems which can arise? Are you prepared to take back the kits which don't work out?
I would suggest you find a breeder to talk to who will be open and honest with you about all the aspects of breeding and the health/genetic problems of most privately bred US ferrets...don't even think about breeding until you have lived with an intact hob for at least 2 years. Speaking for myself, I won't even sell a jill to anyone who has no experience with intact ferrets...they're too much of a challenge for an inexperienced owner. The thought of such a person even thinking about breeding gives me cold chills...and it's the poor ferrets and kits who will suffer for their ignorance.
I could go on indefinitely, but that's enough for now.
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Post by Sherry on May 9, 2012 22:08:45 GMT -5
Thanks both Bev and Joan. I really didn't feel capable of responding to something in which I have minimal knowledge.
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Post by lorelei0922 on May 10, 2012 3:21:09 GMT -5
I have to agree with the other two breeders who have answered... first of all we dont know much about you so cant have an answer to your level of experience. However from the information you have given. I would suggest you take the following action.
Contact a reputable breeder that you might want as a mentor. Inquire about owning a kits from said breeder. Remember if you're under 18 you cant legally own a ferret anyway and your parents will have to sign the contracts. Many breeders wont even sell a ferret to a minor at all. I know i wont.
You'd have to get this ferret on a pet contract and agree to have them surgically altered or implanted at an age appropriate time assuming you are approved.
Then spend a couple years with your breeder ferret, learning about the differences to your petstore ferret and hopefully learning from your breeder a lot of information about the better ways and ins and outs of breeding.. perhaps even attend a birth or two if that is feasible with your mentoring breeder.
After that, when your mentor feels you have the knowledge to breed, they can help you make the correct contacts that will hopefully result in a pair of your own breeding ferrets.
Bottom line ... if you got in touch with me and said Hey... i have 5 yrs experience with petstore ferrets and i've read up a lot about breeding... i'd like to try would you help me and send me two ferrets that can breed together? i would say sorry, get a mentor... get some solid experience with breeding and whole ferrets and come back to me in 2-3 yrs.
Not exactly the answer you were looking for i know.. but thats just how it is...
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Post by crazylady on May 10, 2012 14:27:54 GMT -5
Hi believe me joan and lorelei are not being harsh a lot of people think breeding ferrets is just like breeding rabbits or hamsters WRONG big time so many things can go wrong even before the kits are born ! mom can become distressed and even reabsorb her babies she can eat them kill them and leave them attack you if you go near them have a kit get stuck during delivery retain a kit causing death to her and the kit if you don't know what your looking for refuse to feed them ( a surrogate mum would be needed ) in some cases not even deliver at all so an expensive caesarean would be needed and if this happens most vets spey while on the table so as to prevent mom going through it again you also need to watch a jill in season to see if she would make suitable breeding stock not all jills do some are simply not cut out to be mothers but there is no way of knowing until you have watched them through a couple of phantoms I think joan and lorelie will agree when I say breeding is a life long thing you never stop learning its heartbreaking as well as rewarding and very very expensive thing to do ! not only in time but in money and you have to be dedicated no decent breeders ever make a penny from there kits food time and lots of sore fingers later you always end up out of pocket and in some cases with a broken heart just my two pennies worth take care bye for now Bev
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2012 15:23:37 GMT -5
lol back before I knew what was involved in breeding ferrets I thought it would be cool to plan to have a ferretry upon buying a house someday. As soon as I learned what is involved those plans flew out the window. Even if I was ridiculously wealthy and could afford the costs of breeding, I wouldn't want to breed ferrets.
If I ever do breed any animal, it will be Servals & Savannahs, with aims of producing SBT cats for competition. This will only be if I (somehow) manage to end up wealthy.
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2012 15:40:52 GMT -5
Savannahs just got banned here....
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Post by katt on May 13, 2012 23:49:24 GMT -5
Please don't comment to say how difficult it is to breed ferrets or tell me what to do. I have to start out by saying that this is a terrible attitude to have in your life, much less where the lives of other creatures are involved. If you approach things with that attitude, you will never get any breeder to hand over a kit to you - intact or not! Even people who have YEARS of experience, and experience breeding know that they must at all times be open to learning and input from others. If you can't learn from others then you have no place breeding, much less owning animals. Even just OWNING ferrets requires one to be constantly open to learning. You are never done learning, and there will always, always be people with more experience than you. If you are not willing to take the advice of people who are more experienced to heart, then how will you ever learn what you need to breed? I know I researched for months before ever buying a ferret, and have done constant research since then. And I've barely hit the tip of the iceberg! If it weren't for the fantastic advice of those with more experience than me - sometimes whether I wanted to hear it or not - I have no doubt my ferrets would not be in the healthy, happy condition that they are in now! If you insist on closing yourself off to knowledge and advice, then you will never be able to expand your mind and absorb the information that you need to run a healthy and successful breeding program. The same thing goes for life - people who aren't willing to swallow their pride and learn from others aren't going to go far. No one is perfect, and everyone always has room to learn more. I'm not trying to be mean, but to start with such a close-minded approach is asking for a disaster! You come here asking for help, then tell us not to help you. We can't help if you aren't willing to hear. If you are genuine in your desire to start breeding, the first step is to learn from the more experienced. Listen to the advice from joan, lorelei, and bev. They are all experienced breeders who are an invaluable resource. Breeding is a hazardous adventure and even the most experienced people are always learning. Experience doesn't mean bad things won't happen! Just look at Lorelie's little Cammy. Last season she had a near disaster and almost lost Cammy and the kits! It was extremely sad and extraordinarily expensive! And she is an experienced breeder! Lives are at stake here, it is not something to take on lightly. The money factor has been covered. I probably spent about $2000 on Koda in his first year, on vet bills alone. Then you have to add in supplies, bedding, caging, food, etc. Now factor in time. To be financially able to support a breeding program, I assume that you are an adult working full time in a steady job that pays well? Does that leave you with the time needed to tend to a brood of ferrets? I know 2 can be a struggle some days. They each need individual attention and play time, as well as time out to play and run around together. Now add in 2-12 kits! Who all need individual attention and a LOT of handling (you want them to be well socialized so that they will be people-friendly and more adoptable yes?), attention to make sure they are gaining weight, eating and pooping well, developing normally, and staying healthy. Mom will need REGULAR trips to the vet to ensure that the pregnancy is moving along normally and the babies and mom are staying healthy. That takes money, and time. You're looking at multiple vet visits that, unless you want to pay extra to go to an emergency vet who is open 24/7 (and you'll want to stick with a regular, experienced vet through the process), then that will be during business hours. Can you take time off of work to do this? Then add in cage cleaning, feeding and food preparation, etc etc etc.... That being said, I'd judge from the tenor of your posts that you are young - perhaps still in high school? So you are in school AND working a high paying job? Now how are you going to have time? You can't depend on mom and dad to pay for everything...I've seen so many ferrets come through the boards here that were deathly ill and needed immediate medical care, and mom and dad wouldn't fork out the dough...one ferret died as a result, possibly more! Your parents may say "sure we'll help," but what happens when one or more of the ferrets needs a $1000+ life-saving procedure? Have you thought of who will take the kits? Most breeders have a long wait list well ahead of time. Otherwise, they may end up with a large litter and no homes to send the babies to! I know I personally could never rehome babies. My standards of care are far too high and I simply don't trust other people. I know when I hear someone say "I have a ferret" or "I used to have ferrets" I usually shudder because 99.9% of the time, the people don't know what they are doing and take/took substandard care of the ferrets, fed them a low-quality diet, didn't provide vet care, kept them in inappropriate cages, etc. We had someone come into the clinic I work at recently with a 3 year old little female, sweet as could be. She had fairly advanced adrenal disease - totally treatable. They were in tears when they put her down because they didn't want to put out the cost of treatment. Even melatonin could have prolonged her life and given her many more months if not years of good quality time. Melatonin is pretty inexpensive, esp if you get the implant. I'm not saying they were bad people at all, but times are hard and finances are tight all around. Do you want your babies going to someone who will euthanize instead of treat medical conditions? I'm sure these people seemed like a fantastic home when they got their ferrets. They obviously loved them (2 more at home) very much. But when reality hits, people don't always respond the way you might think. Or they might not be ABLE to. Do you have the access and abilities to do a background and financial check on all potential adopters? Do you have Time to do a home check and spend months ahead of time getting to know the people on your wait list to make sure that they are 10000% the right home? Oh, and did I mention how many ferrets are in shelters right now, desperately looking for homes? These things are just the TIP of the iceberg - and I'm not even a breeder! Research long and hard before you take any drastic actions. Think long and hard, and start slow. Find a mentor who will work with you. Spend some time with an in-tact ferret as recommended. If you put the years into the research that it needs and come out the other side still wanting to breed (but now fully prepared) then more power to you!
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Post by katt on May 13, 2012 23:50:24 GMT -5
I've bred rats before. I work and I have quite a bit of money saved up. Just had to add that I have bred multiple rodents and they are NOTHING like ferrets. Not for care, not for breeding, not for genetics, nothing. They are in no way similar. Entirely different species, entirely different process.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 3, 2012 17:46:20 GMT -5
Savannahs just got banned here.... OMG I HATE HATE HATE all these nonsensical ban laws! That really sucks, savannahs are... I don't even have word to describe them. I got to go meet two F1 hybrids named Galaxy and Supernova and WOW were they just such incredible cats. I don't even mean their size and beautiful coats either. They are just so intensely loyal, when their owner called them they appeared like lighting from within the house, and then we took Galaxy for a walk up to starbucks, she didn't even care about the cars going by. And I do mean "took for a walk" they walk in-line like dogs. Then I got to play fetch with them for a bit, and we filled up their pool and got to see them splash in the pool to retrieve their toys.... I actually expected them to be much more nervous around strangers given the serval background, but the serval bloodline she got her cats from have been pets for generations. The servals used in these programs are not domestic, but they are not quite wild either.
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