Message Number: YG1669 | New FHL Archives Search
From: FurTulsa
Date: 2001-03-24 12:53:00 UTC
Subject: [Ferret-Health-list] Re: Preemie kits

Hi... it's standard for most breeders to leave the jill and
hob together for only 2-3 days... jills can have multiple
conceptions... and it can bring complications.
2 years ago, I made a mistake in calculations and accidentally
left a jill in for 5 days. Come birth time... on a Tuesday she
gave birth to 8 kits.. 6 normal looking... 2 looked *not quite
ready*.... on Thursday she gave birth to another 3, all normal
sized.
The 2 small ones born Tuesday didn't make it... not fully
developed.
It is my firm belief she had a multiple conception and those 2
kits should have been born with the "Thursday batch".
Susan
----- Original Message -----
From: jbclague@yahoo.com
To: Ferret-Health-list@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, March 24, 2001 10:10 AM


Dear Susan,

Thank you so much for posting the pics of the two kits, as
it
answered a question I was going to ask. Zirrah had a litter
of 11 on
3/19, a day early from the first breeding and three days
early from
the second (unplanned by me) breeding. Six of the kits were
very
tiny and had very sparse, short hair in comparison to the
other 4
larger kits. The firstborn kit was the largest, had no hair
at all,
and was stillborn. The tiny ones were not as active, had no
nursing
instincts, and died 36-48 hours after birth. The other 4
are
thriving at four and a half days.

I only bred the jills once with my other two litters. Both
had
litters of 9 of uniform size, looked at birth like your
larger kit.
The tiny kits in this litter looked even less developed than
your
smaller kit, though there were no apparent abnormalities. I
have
seen premature pups (born a week before the due date) that
were
nearly or completely hairless so I assumed that these kits
were
premature and thus probably did not have sufficient lung
and/or
digestive system development.

Her second breeding occurred when Bravo managed to get over
the
barrier to the ferret room (quite an accomplishment!) and
tie her
before I caught up with him. He is agile, quick, and VERY
determined! I was not too concerned at the time, thinking
that two
days would not be that significant. Do most breeders allow
breedings
over 2-3 days and, if so, have any of you seen obvious
differences in
size and development of the kits?




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