From:
tansy
Date: 2002-06-27 23:21:00 UTC
Subject: Re:amazing Mommy instinct
While I have had several ferrets in the past "adopt" a
toy, Candace is my first to have an entire family. She
has about 4 or 5 rabbit fur covered mice in varying
sizes that she Mommies. It's a hard life feeding,
watering and moving around all those babies... I found
her sleeping with one tucked under her chin the other
night. Well, at least they don't complain too much,
and no poop!!!
As far as removing them, I have seen ferrets get very
agitated and upset when their "babies" have to be
cleaned. While I agree it's cute, it's very serious to
our pets, and you don't want to stress the animal out
by handling their babies more than necessary. We all
know how ulcer prone these guys are already!
By the way, I have seen this behavior in both male and
female ferrets. Always rescues (as in pet store
ferrets), have never seen it in a breeder ferret. And
while it can last for life, I have not personally seen
it start later than a year or 2 in age. I have
wondered if it's an artifact of being seperated too
early from their own mother...pure speculation on my
part.
tansy
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