From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2001-03-01 18:22:00 UTC
Subject: aging ferrets
I am often asked to help age kits. Almost always they actually are
the ages they are supposed to be, but they may be stunted due to poor
feeding at the store of the distributor's. After being asked once
more tonight I decided that rather than repeat this regularly since I
am asked so often to instead post this information here. That way
people can find it readily on the FHL site.
Aging ferrets:
First off: are the eyes open? If not then they may be under 4 weeks of age.
There is a post in the FML archives from Bob Church which goes into
dental aging with further detail such as the ranges, and when the
incisor tend to erupt.
Here are the usual approximate eruption ages of permanent teeth (when
they first start to come out) as per _Biology and Diseases of the
Ferret_:
Day 50 (around 7 weeks of age): both upper and lower canines, and
the lower Molar 1
Day 53 (around 7 and 1/2 weeks of age): upper molar 1
Day 60 (around 8 and 1/2 weeks): upper premolars 2-4, lower premolar 2
Day 67 (around 9 and 1/2 weeks): lower premolar 3
Day 74 (around 10 and 1/2 weeks): lower premolar 4 and molar 2
Here is what the various teeth are: The incisors are at the very
front and they are single rooted simple teeth. Moving just behind
them in any quadrant you find the canines which are single and deeply
rooted long spear-looking teeth. Just behind that are the premolars.
Don't let the numbers confuse you; they reflect ancestral mammalian
numbers and not every animal species has all of them. For instance
some species might have P3 and P4 but totally lack P1 and P2.
Premolars are more complex but are not as broad or complex as molars.
Molars are the back cheek teeth.