Aging your ferret by their teeth

[Deleted]

That's a cute little muzzle on Penda! He sounds like a chunker! Can't wait to see pics!

Is he a pure polecat, or a hybrid, or do you mean his pattern / color is polecat and he's a domestic ferret? Just wondering

[albionlass]

He's a pure European polecat, I don't have a dna cert for him but have no reason to doubt that he is.

[foxfire]

I took Buffy and Bindi to a ferret vet a few weeks ago. Buffy is 2 years 5 months and Bindi is 1yr 10 months. Buffy has been on raw and whole prey since I got her when she was 3 months old. I bred Bindi and raised her on meat & prey. The vet gave them a check up, and said to me that they are the healthiest ferrets with the BEST teeth she has ever seen.
Well that made my day..

[kd]

One of mine had her teeth removed due to her last owners not taking care of her.

[Deleted]

question about my soxx's teeth. as far as i know he has been kibble-fed his whole life. i was told his is 2 or 3. i did my best to examine his teeth the other day when my mom was around (i'm sick, so can't handle too much). didn't manage to get any pictures but we will try again tonight.

His canines (the fang-looking teethies), particularly the two on the top of his mouth, are very yellow. There are patches of translucency spread intermittently throughout the teeth, up to what looks like maybe 2/3 of the way.

Is the yellow tartar/plaque buildup? He is a rescue who has been re-homed multiple times. I haven't started brushing their teeth because admittedly I'm pretty nervous about it. They do get soupies so I know they need to have some dental care, for treats they get n bones (1/3 to 2/3 of a stick per day, no more than 1/3 of a stick at a time). I'm wondering if Soxx is skinnier because it hurts him to eat the kibble (I'm in the middle of transitioning)?


So...does the yellow on his teeth = plaque/tartar?
What should I do for dental care?
and what are the possibilities that Soxx's teeth are preventing him from having a full diet?

[Deleted]

and i will try to snap some pics later tonight when i have some extra hands around.

[Heather]

Ok, from the description you've just given about Soxx's teeth...I would place him at about 7 yrs of age. That would also go along the whole skinnier of the two ferrets thing. It's not uncommon to misrepresent the age of a ferret, or to forget that a ferret is older than it is. The yellowing is probably staining, often caused by the various dyes and such that are put into kibbles, especially the cheapy ones. Another thing it might be is cage damage. Ferrets have a tendency to damage those front teeth...sometimes in play, falls, cage and bowl chewing and of course cage wars. The yellow and dark stains can be either staining or nerve damage done to the teeth. I'm going to guess because you can see translucency on the teeth that it's staining.
If at any time you have concerns that teeth, gums or jaw might be causing problems that might be preventing your wee one from enjoying his dinner or having a full quality of life I would take him to see a vet or a dental technitian. I've had a number of ferrets who have required dental care or at least a dental check up. Napoleon fed raw all his life, due to genetics, required dental care, and and extraction during his lifetime. Boris who I thought was having dental issues, turned out to be a skull malformation that was preventing him from properly closing his jaw and causing breathing issues (he was just recently diagnosed with heart murmur that can be heard by using only a stethascope )
Take care
ciao

[Deleted]

I do see him eat so I know he does. And he gobbles his soupies right up and has started to fill out

Mom and I managed to snap some pretty darn good pictures, if I do say so m'self We actually got good dental pics of all three.

Soxx is very, very tolerant. Probably the most laid-back ferret I have ever met (except when he is war dancing like crazy with Freya or Marley). Suspect Marshall ferret due to inking on ears
Bottoms:

Fangs, top:

Close-up of top left fang:

Close-up of top right fang:



Freya was not too impressed by the whole situation and was a bit more difficult. She's purportedly about 11.5 months old (Marshall ferret)
top teeth:


And MARLEY was NOT digging the whole deal AT ALL. It took us quite a few tries to get this shot. He kept squirming out of focus He is supposedly about a year old. Do teeth match age?
Mostly top, a little bottom:



What do you folks think - particularly about Soxx's teeth, how old you think he is, etc. And how old the other two are if you wouldn't mind

Also what should I be doing for preventative care? Right now they don't get bones of any type, though this will change in the future.

[Deleted]

Also a note on diet -- all three have been kibble fed most of their lives. Soxx & Marley James have been eating cruddy cheap cat food before they came to me, and Freya probably some Marshall kibble. Now all three free eat wysong's epigen90 kibble and get soupies of ground epigen90 and reconstituted arch1 from wysong. soon im adding in freeze dried raw.

[Heather]

Ok, I still stand by my previous statement about Soxx....I think he's about 7 or so yrs old. Nice pics by the way. It's not an easy endeavour There is clarity up to half the tooth, and there is some translucency on the gums as well which is an indicator of an older ferret. This would also stand to reason why he's so mellow.
Freya is showing some translucency, just to the tips of her teeth. This would put her somewhere around a year to 3 yrs. I'm going to guess about 18 months.
Marley's teeth appear to be the teeth of a 1 yr old ferret. There appears to be translucency but I'm thinking it's the reflection of the flash because it doesn't appear to be on the other tooth.
Anyone else want to guess ferret ages? ;D This isn't a foolproof method by the way. Raw fed ferrets have little or no translucency to their teeth. One can gauge the approximate age of kibble fed ferrets but any nerve damage caused by impact or cage biting could cause the reading to be off depending on the extent of the damage or the discolouration
ciao

[Sherry]

Actually, I think you've hit it pretty dead on there Freya's teeth do appear to make her a bit older than Marley, but not by much. And Soxx is definitely a senior. This is, by the way, how we realized our Sinnead was closer to 4-5 when we got her, not the two years old she was purported to be. By the time she was helped to the bridge at 8 years of age, her teeth were translucent 2/3 to 3/4 of the way up, and some translucency to the gums as well.

[Deleted]

I'm not surprised whatsoever to hear that Soxx is older than I was told. Actually the first time I saw him, the way his coat looked, I knew he wasn't 3, but wouldn't have guessed 7...anyway I am glad he has finally found his loving forever home after 7 years of god-knows-what!

Freya's guesstimate does surprise me though -- I have a birth certificate from Petco that states her birthday as 1/30/2011. It has signatures certifying vaccinations as well. Could they have lied about her birthday, or are her teeth just weird? I know that this method of verifying age is a guesstimate, buut I also don't know how much I can trust PetCo/Marshall Farms Not to mention she is soooo much smaller than Marley!!! Boys are bigger than girls, yes, but holy smokes

[Sherry]

It's not uncommon for pet stores to store all the "birth" certificates together, and just grab the first to hand when selling a ferret

[Heather]

My Nicodemus, a petstore rescue, same as Minion (just different reasons) He had a birth certificate that stated he had been born 6 months before and was a female. I knew that this wasn't the case because the manager had told me about the little black ferret who had come in too young to survive in the last shipment of fuzzies (he had been reported as a failure to thrive and was put in the back room and left to die, if it hadn't been for the small animals manager he would have just faded away and his little body been used for a credit to Marshals farms ). That would make him about 6 to 8 weeks at max and he was a male
So, don't believe everything that comes in the guise of a birth certificate
ciao

[Deleted]

OY VEY sadly I am not surprised Marshall farms drives me batty, all 3 of my ferts are Marshalls but I only got one at a pet store (Freya -- I didn't know any better). The two boys I rescued from a woman who was desperately looking to re-home them.

Why would Freya be so tiny? I know females are more diminutive, but that's a huuuge difference!