Message Number: YG8017 | New FHL Archives Search
From: ChaoticFer8s@aol.com
Date: 2001-10-20 04:05:00 UTC
Subject: Re: [Ferret-Health-list] Re: Newborn kits

Thanks for your kind words, Pam. You and all who scrambled to find a foster
mom are to be commended for your caring and efforts to help. If only the
owner had reached out for help right away..... Newborns can go some hours
without nursing as long as they are kept warm. There would have been a
chance for a quick trip up and I would probably have put them with Isabeau,
the last of whose 12 week kits left shortly after noon. As I write these
words, she is still looking for them. She is also pretty darn mad at me! I
can tell because she keeps giving me hard nips. So she would have been a
good bet for suddenly having more babies to adore.

You said it and it is true and a good case in point. Breeding ferrets is not
something to do just for the heck of it. What happened here leaves not much
more to say - maternal jill dead and babies lost. And I grieve for the
little mama and babies that I didn't even know. I am so sorry for all who
tried to help, I know it is hard. Also, I very much doubt the jill just up
and died. She would have had some symptoms of a problem or problems that
needed to be addressed by prompt veterinarian care!

But with life gone there, new life is arriving here and I must tend to the
new ones. Although even after years of breeding, I still never count my
"chickens" until they are days or a week old! Best to all, Meg