at what age

[festa 206]

elo lads

just been flicking through the ferreting section and there's alot of picture on here of very young litters i always thought it was best to leave the mother to it with as little disturbance as possible my litter is 1 week old yesterday ... and its so hard not to get involved ..but when is the best age to start handling the little ones ???

 

atb gary

[masmiffy 82]

elo lads

just been flicking through the ferreting section and there's alot of picture on here of very young litters i always thought it was best to leave the mother to it with as little disturbance as possible my litter is 1 week old yesterday ... and its so hard not to get involved ..but when is the best age to start handling the little ones ???

 

atb gary

 

 

Hi mate I know what you mean about getting involved.

I have always been in the nest from day 1 if your jill handles well and is calm it should be fine.

I had my kits all out on about day 3 to count em and yesterday they had just started to crawl out of the nest. Started with 9 still got 9!

I cleaned em out and just left the nest. The jill and her mother are in there together and took no notice at all.

[scothunter 12,609]

This has been discused many time on here and its a touchy subject lol

me personally i dont handle the kits till there out the nest eyes open.i believe the less interfering done the better.let the mother do her thing,before you know it you will have your hands full and all the handling you want.

[The one 8,493]

It all depends how well you know your jill and what she will allow ,the exception being a young jill with her first litter .I like to be putting half a rabbit into the nest box by three weeks and then you have to move them to clean it out

[stealthy1 3,964]

I leave my kits until they come out to feed by them selves, the reason I do this is because I've seen some gentle jills start to bite when they have a second litter due to the fact that they know you are going to be in the nestbox to have a look, and there's no rush, the kits are still going to be there in a couple of weeks

[festa 206]

its pretty much what i thought ill just leave them till they come out and start feeding themselves

 

cheers lads gary

[stealthy1 3,964]

its pretty much what i thought ill just leave them till they come out and start feeding themselves

 

cheers lads gary

 

 

What I tend to do is poke my camera or mobile phone into the nestbox while the jill is tucking into a bit of fresh rabbit, and take a couple of quick pix, no disturbance then

[lurcher lass 9]

same here, clean them out, handle jill to check she's all well after the birth and still producing milk apart from counting kits and taking odd photo, once they've opened eyes i gradually start getting the jill used to me watching her and stroking her and the odd kit until all are used to it, then i'm all over them and loving every second! lol but it depends on the jill to be honest, the jill i have now i'll probably be able to be more involved when i breed her but the last one you had to take it slow,

 

all the best with your litter and follow your instincts and don't push the jill

 

lurcher lass x

[slingshot82 32]

I dont disturb them until they are at least 2 weeks old, I'll look in the nest box to see them before that though. Once they start moving out of the nest themselves, I handle them as often as I can.

 

Kyle

[lorelei0922 2]

to avoid interfering when it isn't neccessary but keep me in the loop lol.. i installed a webcam into the nest box.. easy as anything to watch the nest then and it paid dividends when by day 45 my jill was extra tired to the point of lethargy upon watching her in the nest...

 

Resulted in an emergency trip to the vet and her needing a C section.... could have lost the whole lot .... i could also keep an eye on her and the kits without poking around too much...

[scothunter 12,609]

to avoid interfering when it isn't neccessary but keep me in the loop lol.. i installed a webcam into the nest box.. easy as anything to watch the nest then and it paid dividends when by day 45 my jill was extra tired to the point of lethargy upon watching her in the nest...

 

Resulted in an emergency trip to the vet and her needing a C section.... could have lost the whole lot .... i could also keep an eye on her and the kits without poking around too much...

 

is your ferrets outside?

[romany52 313]

I'll look in on day 2, I'll pick them up at about 2 weeks , and they get handled daily from 4 weeks. they have a high percentage of wild polecat in them so if you wait until they leave the nest you've lost them, I've found with all ferrets if they are handled daily from 4-12 weeks they stay tame for life irrespective of how often they're handled after that.