From:
tansy
Date: 2007-07-03 00:35:06 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re:More thoughts from the Ferret Symposium 2007
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
Danee, this was very timely and interesting to me as I
currently have kits. A couple thoughts.
My kits are now 2 days short of 10 weeks, but they are
STILL suckling despite being fed a kibble diet
supplemented with raw meat and bones at least once a
day. The also started on a supplemental "mush" of Baby
TF and Goat's Milk at about 4 1/2 weeks. I don't think
either of my 2 jills has any milk any more, but at
least some of the kits have the need to still suck.
Also, while not as diligent as earlier, the jills are
still very attentive to the kits, and monitor them
carefully. The kits are certainly not ready to be
seperated from their moms.
In reference to the males needing to suckle longer, I
wonder if it's related to teeth development. In
getting the pictures of the teeth for APHIS et al, I
noticed that the hob kits seemed to get their
permanent teeth later than the jill kits. This may be
worth having some breeders pay attention to.
One final interesting observation is how well the kits
get along with their father. I only have one hob. He
has 2 buddies who are a 2 and 3 year old early
neutered males (my hob is about 1 1/2). Currently my
hob has to be seperated from my 2 jills, 3 older
sprites and an older gib, all of which he wants to
mate with. But he's just great with the kits. He plays
with them some, but he will always happily curl up and
sleep with them. Curious if this was typical with
BFF's too.
Thanks for your reports from the conference, they are
very interesting.
Valerie- shelter Mom and once in a blue moon breeder
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