Ferret Help, Desperate.

[vermin catcher 219]

One other thing mate,i had also tried the idea of putting 4 of the orphaned kits in with a jill that had kits a week younger than the orphaned ones as she had only four in her litter.It all went well for a few days but then i noticed 2 of the kits from the nursing jill were really small and were constantly out in the run and not the bed.The stronger orphaned week older kits were dominating the teats and i think the jill was ingnoring her own kits thinking they were weaker or sick.but even the ones i was hand rearing were getting far bigger and stronger than the 4 i had put in with the nursing jill so i ended up hand rearing them as well although they still havn't caught up with the ones i hand reared from the start.ONce i took the orphaned ones away the jills own 4 came on leaps and bounds again with her.So my advice is not to overload your other jill with too many kits as if she goes belly up your in a world of shit.Give the kitten milk a go its rewarding to see them pull through because of your own hard slog anyway ,if their from good working stock they desrve it.

good luck

[Guest vin]

good advice from vermin catcher there mate...

 

but dam hard work..

A lot easier to let the jill do it for you and you spend more time looking after the jill instead....I lift the little ones out and give them an extra protion if they look left out at feeding times... I put some in a little dish and give them a bit of extra attention...as long as there belly is fat and full all is well..if there sleepy and happy you know your doing the job ok..I give them lactose free milk a couple of times a day also. . .it gets to the point of where you just cannot fill them up ...LOL. yesterday i went through half a litre of milk,a full rabbit,and a wood pigeon, .

 

basically mate...just ram as much food at the Jill and the kits as they can take..LOL.

[jasper65 6]

Hi there mate

Im the guy Dazzam posted about a few posts up,he contacted me to see if i could help you out.As Darren said my own circumstances were exactly the same as yours.The jill was fine sitting on 10 Kits one day and gone the next.Mine were just 3 weeks old so i headed to a local pet shop (jolly's) and got kitten rearing milk (beaphar)was the make and a small beaphar feeding set .The kitten milk is better as some of the dog rearing milk has lactose and ferrets dont do well on it as they are lactose intolerant.You get a small plastic spoon in the tin with the powdered milk mate and all i do is put 2 level spoons of the powdered milk into a glass and then 7 spoons of semi warm water and mix it.Put it in the small feeder bottle you get with the beaphar feeding set put your finger over the end and give it a good shake this helps to mix as well.That will be enough for aroung 6-10 kits.I then put the kits into a small box and lift them one at a time and wrap them in an old t-towel for feeding with just the head poking out as they can dribble a fair amount of milk out untill they get the hang of the bottle.If you dont use the t-towel all you end up with is a sticky ferret kit and fingers and that leads to a cold shivering kit and you having to completly clean the kit and thats not recommended when you have another 8-9 crying to get fed. once the kit has enough it will usually pull away or fall asleep i then unwrap it from the t-towel and wipe its arse and other bits to stimulate it to empty its bowels.baby wipes are best for this as they are already moist and you are not messing about with bowls of water ect and adding more problems.Never neglet to do this part as very soon you will have kits with really extended bellys as they cant empty their bowels without the stimulation.Once the kit is fed and has emptied itself have another box or similar to place the fed one into so you know yous been fed already.Trust me they dont like being left alone and he will cry untill you have did another one and then place it with the first.I go through this with each kit and when i get to the last one i put him in and try each kit again before i quit untill the next feed.Mate all this sounds like a real nightmare and i suppose it was for the first couple of days but i just got into a routine and it became easier.I also have a jill that is not on any young and i put her in with them at nights and after each feed so she helps in the cleaning end of things.One other thing when cutting the end of the teat from the feeding bottle just take the tiniest amount off as if its too big it will end up all over you and the kits. Hope i have helped you in some way mate,it might not be the best way to do it but it has worked for me the last few weeks and i have started weaning mine a few days ago and havn't lost any of the 10. If you are unsure about anything let me know and if i can help i will.Youll not believe this but i was actually going to do a youtube video of me hand rearing my kits so that others could get a lay-mans view of it being done.Decided against it on the grounds that my missus couldn't work the cam-corder wish i had of now.

 

what a cracking post VC .

 

read it earler but needed to go feed the birds and just read it again, trust me thats helped me out alot and most definitley for the future if needed! it a great bit of information and advice for anyone stuck in this situation.

 

at the moment I have stuck them back with the other female in the hope everything is ok, so far so good she don't seem non the wise although she will have her work cut out for a while. I suppose I was lucky to have another female with kits of a simular age, if not I would be following your post to a T!! if things don't work I still may have to

[vermin catcher 219]

Hard work all right mate and to be honest if they are in or around 3 weeks you are in with a chance any younger and its a whole new ball game and 10 times harder to bring them through as im sure you know. At 3 weeks you can afford to feed them every 4 hours,but when they are younger its every 2 hours ,so your no sooner done with a feed and its near time to start again.I, like Jasper was lucky enough that they were at the 3 week mark so you know you only have a couple of weeks to keep them going but have to agree it was hard work .My kids enjoyed every minute of feeding times and with the amount of handling that goes with hand rearing the kits are already bomb proof.Having said that,their eyes opened yesterday and the first thing they did was chomp on my fingers!..... thats gratitude for you

[vermin catcher 219]

Hi there mate

Im the guy Dazzam posted about a few posts up,he contacted me to see if i could help you out.As Darren said my own circumstances were exactly the same as yours.The jill was fine sitting on 10 Kits one day and gone the next.Mine were just 3 weeks old so i headed to a local pet shop (jolly's) and got kitten rearing milk (beaphar)was the make and a small beaphar feeding set .The kitten milk is better as some of the dog rearing milk has lactose and ferrets dont do well on it as they are lactose intolerant.You get a small plastic spoon in the tin with the powdered milk mate and all i do is put 2 level spoons of the powdered milk into a glass and then 7 spoons of semi warm water and mix it.Put it in the small feeder bottle you get with the beaphar feeding set put your finger over the end and give it a good shake this helps to mix as well.That will be enough for aroung 6-10 kits.I then put the kits into a small box and lift them one at a time and wrap them in an old t-towel for feeding with just the head poking out as they can dribble a fair amount of milk out untill they get the hang of the bottle.If you dont use the t-towel all you end up with is a sticky ferret kit and fingers and that leads to a cold shivering kit and you having to completly clean the kit and thats not recommended when you have another 8-9 crying to get fed. once the kit has enough it will usually pull away or fall asleep i then unwrap it from the t-towel and wipe its arse and other bits to stimulate it to empty its bowels.baby wipes are best for this as they are already moist and you are not messing about with bowls of water ect and adding more problems.Never neglet to do this part as very soon you will have kits with really extended bellys as they cant empty their bowels without the stimulation.Once the kit is fed and has emptied itself have another box or similar to place the fed one into so you know yous been fed already.Trust me they dont like being left alone and he will cry untill you have did another one and then place it with the first.I go through this with each kit and when i get to the last one i put him in and try each kit again before i quit untill the next feed.Mate all this sounds like a real nightmare and i suppose it was for the first couple of days but i just got into a routine and it became easier.I also have a jill that is not on any young and i put her in with them at nights and after each feed so she helps in the cleaning end of things.One other thing when cutting the end of the teat from the feeding bottle just take the tiniest amount off as if its too big it will end up all over you and the kits. Hope i have helped you in some way mate,it might not be the best way to do it but it has worked for me the last few weeks and i have started weaning mine a few days ago and havn't lost any of the 10. If you are unsure about anything let me know and if i can help i will.Youll not believe this but i was actually going to do a youtube video of me hand rearing my kits so that others could get a lay-mans view of it being done.Decided against it on the grounds that my missus couldn't work the cam-corder wish i had of now.

 

what a cracking post VC .

 

read it earler but needed to go feed the birds and just read it again, trust me thats helped me out alot and most definitley for the future if needed! it a great bit of information and advice for anyone stuck in this situation.

 

at the moment I have stuck them back with the other female in the hope everything is ok, so far so good she don't seem non the wise although she will have her work cut out for a while. I suppose I was lucky to have another female with kits of a simular age, if not I would be following your post to a T!! if things don't work I still may have to

Aye mate as i say i started to see the smaller younger kits go down a bit when i did the same thing, ferrets arn't daft,if a jill thinks any kit is weaker they will leave it out on its own.The orphaned kits were a fair bit bigger than her own kits even though there was only a weeks difference so i think she thought they were sick and was leaving them in the run.As soon as i took the bigger kits out to hand rear them with the rest of the litter she was fine again with her own 4. Just keep an eye on things for a few days and it would do no harm to get the kitten milk anyway for the jill now that she has extra mouths to feed plus you can still give any of the smaller ones an extra feed to help out.I wish you all the very best mate keep us posted on how they do, as someone else said we are all suckers for a happy ending

[Rake aboot 4,936]

Hope that works for you bud, but I`d be supplimenting the whole lot on mashed rabbit mixed with cat milk.

You will need to get them weaned asap to lessen the risk of issues with the Jill

Good luck fella

[jasper65 6]

Hope that works for you bud, but I`d be supplimenting the whole lot on mashed rabbit mixed with cat milk.

You will need to get them weaned asap to lessen the risk of issues with the Jill

Good luck fella

 

nice one Rake cheers

 

looked at them first thing this morning and must say the female looked a bit frustrated by it all with a few kits calling. I mullered some Rabbit and skinned chick in the wifes electric hand mincer mixed with a little yoke and placed it in there, the good thing is they managed to eat themselves from the bowl!! checked them again later and she was layed out with some youngsters suckling off her, all looked pretty contented and full.

 

so far so good bud so I'm off to get some Lactol this morning

[Rake aboot 4,936]

Brilliant mate, well done. weaning them off the Jill will be the best thing.

[jasper65 6]

Quick update...

 

all six that came off the mother that died are doing well thanks to the advice on this topic, a tad over six weeks old now .

 

The other mother still also has her six back with her which are roughly a week behind, these are also bang on..........

[northern lad 2,292]

Nice one Jasper glad to see your efforts rewardedATB Dave

[Guest vin]

Quick update...

 

all six that came off the mother that died are doing well thanks to the advice on this topic, a tad over six weeks old now .

 

The other mother still also has her six back with her which are roughly a week behind, these are also bang on..........

 

thats great news mate...glad to hear that all is well.