Tell me about ferrets...

Badshot

Member
Location
Kent
Ferrets are excellent pets, and a lot more fun than most small animal pets you can choose from.
The gear for ferreting is quite expensive, especially if you go down the ferret finder route.
I done it for a while until lack of time and injury meant I couldn't do the walking anymore.
It takes a lot of time to set up.
Huge patience waiting for a rabbit to be flushed, someti
 

SteveHants

Member
Livestock Farmer
Iv had jills that I haven’t bred for multiple summers and they have been fine, but it takes plenty of work to keep them from losing fur around the tale and looking like they’ve got mange!
Ferrets are induced ovulators so won’t release any eggs until they are mated so a season for the Jill can last most of the summer and she will be swollen and prone to infection and all sorts of other ailments which slip my mind at the minute but a quick google will help a new owner.
There appears to be some discussion of vasectomised hobs for this.
I definitely need to research it.
 

SteveHants

Member
Livestock Farmer
Nobody has mentioned that you do lose them now and then. They can kill in the burrow and just go to sleep after eating the rabbit, or just come out of an unseen hole and disappear etc.
Consequence of a devastated 12 yr old might be a bit much.

You don't have to go rabbiting, I have quite a few friends whose children have ferrets purely as pets. Seem quite happy going for walks on a lead for exercise outdoors.
This is true, I hadn't considered how she might react to it's loss. Part of the reason I thought of it is a feeling that I've got an animal sat round that I'm paying to feed, that could quite happily provide lots of food (plus, I'm partial to a bit of rabbit myself), and it might get the child away from the smartphone....
 
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SteveHants

Member
Livestock Farmer
You can get the gill to the vet and have it 'gill jabbed', which I think is a hormone injection.
Without sorting they can be quite off colour and even die in extreme cases.
Interesting, I wonder if I could administer myself. My vet has now mostly resigned to selling me stuff for the dogs that I'll inject at home, apart from inoculations.....
 

milkloss

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex
Interesting, I wonder if I could administer myself. My vet has now mostly resigned to selling me stuff for the dogs that I'll inject at home, apart from inoculations.....

Years since I've had much to do with ferrets but I'm wondering if they bear a grudge......injecting might be something you want the vet to do!
 
I'd just add that ferrets are social creatures. I usually keep a couple of hobs, but have also bred a few litters of kits over the years.

Getting a pair of hobs (one albino, one polecat) gives great opportunity for kids to do the naming.

Ant & Dec
Bill & Ben
Batman & Robin
Chas & Dave
Bert & Ernie
Noel & Liam
etc etc...
 

SteveHants

Member
Livestock Farmer
I'd just add that ferrets are social creatures. I usually keep a couple of hobs, but have also bred a few litters of kits over the years.

Getting a pair of hobs (one albino, one polecat) gives great opportunity for kids to do the naming.

Ant & Dec
Bill & Ben
Batman & Robin
Chas & Dave
Bert & Ernie
Noel & Liam
etc etc...

Sounds like a better plan than Jills - a pair of Hobbs wouldn't fight?
 

Ffermer Bach

Member
Livestock Farmer
Made myself a long net in hemp once when I was living in Edinburgh, left it the otherside of a little hill we were ferreting, not sure what the ferrets flushed but it made a hell of a mess of my net - first time I used it
I remember when I used to ferret, the hemp nets were much better than the nylon ones, as they didn't tangle up in the bag
 

SteveHants

Member
Livestock Farmer

this is a wonderful film, I wish TV would make programmes like this now, but I think it would offend too many people
Since posting this thread I've been on a bit of a YouTube mission about this stuff - there's a couple of interesting channels related to ferreting.
I'm now very much liking the idea of a few purse nets and a long net, as opposed to loads of purse nets.
 

MRT

Member
Livestock Farmer
Getting a pair of hobs (one albino, one polecat) gives great opportunity for kids to do the naming.

Ant & Dec
Bill & Ben
Batman & Robin
Chas & Dave
Bert & Ernie
Noel & Liam
etc etc...
[/QUOTE]

Kevin and Perry :cry::cry::cry: Poor Kevin. We will never see his like again
 
Got a guy here ,bit of a poacher turned game keeper type ,,he told me not long ago that if the Gills dont breed ,then they can die ,,how much truth there is in that I dont know but he had ferrets and polecats for years so it sounded correct

The Jill can become amemic over time and dont come out of heat thus they can bleed ti death... your vet can give the "jill jab" or "jill pill" it last Bout 12-18 mths...
 

puntabrava

Member
Location
Wiltshire
wonderful creatures......they are very clean animals but sadly often kept in small hutches and so get rep for being dirty/smelly.....get a dog kennel and run.....but really good steel mesh....they don't gnaw so wood ok......as to ferreting i always seem to dig more rabbits outta blind burrows than i netted.....once pulled nine out in one go
I had several Jill ferrets over 10 years as a kid and never dug anything but occasionally sat for an hour😕
 

hendrebc

Member
Livestock Farmer
I miss my ferrets :(
You daughter will love them best pets ever. If you handle them enough from when they are kits they are just like dogs and will play with you like a dog will believe it or not. Great fun little things. Why the hell anyone would want to have a f**king rabbit in a hutch as a pet is beyond me when you can have something you can actually play with. Been having this debate with my wife about a pet for our daughter but it's been decided that she is too young. What we really mean is we've reached a stalemate so we aren't having either :rolleyes:
Used to use mine on rats in bales and stuff with my sheepdogs and terrier. That was so much fun it's probably illegal :D
Ferreting rabbits is a bit tame after you've done that.
 

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