From:
"Chris Lloyd"
Date: 2002-07-31 08:45:29 UTC
Subject: RE: [ferrethealth] Stress
To: <ferrethealth@smartgroups.com>
Message-ID: <000201c2386e$a24e8c90$3600a8c0@ramond>
Hi Sandy, as you said most ferrets these days seem happy to bunk
together but there are some like your Ezekiel who need their own space.
You only have to read the number of posts about how this ferret or that
group of ferrets cannot be put together to realise there are a lot of
ferrets about that could end up in stressful environments. I have had to
remove ferrets from my bunch that just would not get along with other
ferrets. As all my lot used to be whole I had to make boxes with small
holes so that only the jills could get in. When you have a court of
whole ferrets it is a different ball game as the seasonal hormone levels
change, the hobs that have bunked together all winter (can't stand the
girls chattering all night) pick there own territories in the spring.
The jills squabble over nesting boxes but as I normally jill jab all the
jills except one all the fuss quickly settles down. Even the kits stress
their mother and around 4/5 weeks after birth I have seen jills sleeping
in the opening of the nesting boxes so the kits cannot get back in to
bother her. At that point they go and give the hobs a hard time as they
have go back to sleeping together as there are no jill to fight over. At
about that time of year I'm the one that is stressed. Chris
The Wessex Ferret Club http://web.ukonline.co.uk/superzoe/index.htm
Chris Lloyd ICQ no. 44575318
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