Line Breeding

[Tom n Sky 16]

Does anybody know anything about line breeding ferrets ?

I had a line of ferrets which i lost a few years ago. The best ferrets i have ever had and im keen to try and get the line back. I have tracked down a direct son of my hob. So what i intend to do is put him to my current best jill this year. Where do i go from there ?

Keep a hob and jill from the litter then have a litter from them, then take a jill from that litter and put her back to the first hob her grandad?

[gnipper 6,467]

You'd have to keep whole litters back or keep them close and hope one or more turned out good workers, if the one you kept turned out shite would you still breed it into your line?

[polecat29 4]

I would keep the the litter and put the best hob over the mother and then the old hob over a jill from the mother son breeding.

[kinderbeano 13]

yeah, line breeding will only be worth it if u give every ferret a chance to show its working ability and then pick the best for breeding If you just pick the kits you want at 6 weeks old then you could be picking the one that works least like the parents .if you do it tho id say breed mother-son or father-daughter and you should breed to a totally unrelated individual every second generation to avoid genetic illnesses/weaknesses. keeping a detailed log book would be important to keep track of all the matings and to help decide which ferrets would be best to breed from.

To do it properly ud need to be able to keep the full litter each year and work them all (but thats in a perfect world). Id love to keep my own line but dont have the time or facilities.

[Tom n Sky 16]

Thanks.

I lost the line completely and have only found a son to the line so i would be using him to a good jill i have which is not from the line. My thinking was if it kept going back to the original hob, then it may get the line back but its maybe a too bigger task to try. I just seem to get more bad ferrets than good these days.

[lurcher2020 285]

The same as starting a line of dogs bud when you put the hob off your old line on to your Jill's keep Jill's and line the same hob back over his daughters then again for his granddaughters then bring a different hob in to freshen the blood so it's not too tight keep a hob and then breed it in to your Jill's then you can start mixing cousins aunts nephews just don't breed to close like full litter siblings

[Tom n Sky 16]

The same as starting a line of dogs bud when you put the hob off your old line on to your Jill's keep Jill's and line the same hob back over his daughters then again for his granddaughters then bring a different hob in to freshen the blood so it's not too tight keep a hob and then breed it in to your Jill's then you can start mixing cousins aunts nephews just don't breed to close like full litter siblings

Thanks for that. This is pretty much what i had in mind but wasn't too sure if it was the way to go. Cheers