I Hunt With Mink!

[cookiemonsterandmerlin 145]

:clapper:quality Cookie

[Andrew Beirne 78]

that is class fair play too him he must start early with them in terms of handling

[Minkenry 1,044]

Ok, I'll go through your questions here, and if I've missed one, please let me know as it wasn't intentional, I just have a pretty long list of questions .

 

As far as the age I've started my mink, and the mink's background before I got it. I've trained both bottle raised babies (I have decided the best age for that is 32-34 days old), ranch raised adults, and wild caught adults. I have different training methods depending on the mink's age, and where it comes from.

 

Adults must be tamed before they are trained, and a babies training is slow and gradual, progressing with them as they mature. With an adult is captured from the wild, it needs a little time to adjust to living in captivity, and care must be taken that they eat properly before training begins. Mink bought from a farm have the opposite problem in that they are over weight, and need to loose some serious fat. So an adult ranch mink's training revolves around helping it loose it's weight as the training progresses.

 

I have an article I have written on mink, and it includes a couple chapters on taming and training. If you want a more in depth answer to this question then follow this link, and click on the blue word that says "About" under my profile picture.

 

https://www.(!64.56:886/pages/Minkenry/72678726611

 

There is also an in depth explanation on caching training (getting the mink to take her kill to the box) in chapter 10 of this article I've written.

 

Since I'm sure caching training would be VERY intriguing to basically ANYONE who hunts with a ferret, I'm going to copy and paste a quick condensed version of this chapter for every on to read/watch. The videos show how it's done, so if you skip them, you will miss learning about how to train to cache, something that would be very useful if you could get a hunting ferret to do it (and I don't know if you can since I've never tried).

 

Here is a series of videos about how to train a mink to cache. These videos are of a baby mink, but training an adult mink to cache is done in the exact same way.

Here is the first step with no distractions. In this video I start with a lure instead of an animal body. You can start with ether one, but eventually you will have to move up to using a whole animal body. I recommend dark colored rats or squirrels over white rats, because a white rat's skin is very thin and can be easily torn.

http://youtu.be/ADc4dMLxOWk

This video is the next step in cache training. The mink is around distractions and other places where they could cache their prey (like under the bridge in the video. I also explain the cache training tube in this video.

http://youtu.be/wxC7PTwD3iQ

This video shows the 3rd step in cache training which is doing some bush caching. Mink have little desire to cache in bushes, and would much rather cache in a hole. However a bush is a far better caching spot than the open. So the bush caching is the next step up from doing caching training in the open. In this video I also explain bush training equipment, and how to put a harness on a live rat. It is this point in the training that live rats are introduced.

http://youtu.be/Yh-w6Bwngao

This video some details on my improved cache training tube, and details on hole caching training and equipment. It also shows the last step in cache training where the mink pulls the rat out of an actual hole.

http://youtu.be/p0BHvIYRYtI

Here's another video showing my mink pulling a rat out of a hole with a few extra pointers.

http://youtu.be/KY1K8JYO7K4

In cache training, you can start out using the lure, but you will eventually need to do some training with animal bodies. Mink are not stupid, and know the difference between a lure and an actual dead animal. It's easier to start the caching habit with the lure, then later switch to using whole dead animals just like you did the lure. After using whole animal bodies, you will then need to transfer to live animals. For some reason a mink gets so excited after killing, that they often totally forget to cache, and you'll need to do some additional training on live animals to finalize your mink's caching habit.

[Minkenry 1,044]

I accidentally clicked post before I was done answering everyone's questions.

 

As far as how I go about taming and adult mink, follow the before mentioned link, click on the blue "About" under my profile picture, and then go to chapter 9 which goes over how I tame and train an adult mink (both a wild and a ranch mink). I'll post the link again for your convenience...

 

https://www.(!64.56:886/pages/Minkenry/72678726611

 

Some one asked how old Missy was. She was over a year old when I got her, and now she's 2.

 

I was asked about a ferret finder. I would like to look into that, but every ferret finder I've ever seen is so bulky I wouldn't dream of putting one on one of my mink! If there are newer versions that are small and light I'd like to look into it, but they would need to be water proof. I train my mink good enough that a ferret finder would only be useful for my beginner mink, but it would be VERY useful then! Also, I think it would be pretty hard to keep one on a mink, as they are quite a bit trickier than ferrets.

 

I was also asked what mink bring to the table. Then someone answered "trout" I almost died laughing! Yes that is one thing a ferret can never do is bring a trout to the table.... at least not a live one. So aquatic prey is the obvious. Mink can more than just swim on the surface like a ferret, the can also dive under water and capture fish, crayfish, and other stuff like that. They can also follow a fleeing brown rat into the water and over take it, something a ferret couldn't do because they would have to dive under to follow the submerged rat (brown rats dive under water when pursued). Really to answer your question I must first ask my own.

 

I've been told conflicting stories about a ferrets ability to hunt rats. Can someone who has, or does hunt rats with ferrets please clarify something for me, because I am rather confused.

 

I've been told by some that ferrets often become intimidated by rats if you hunt rats too often over a prolonged period of time. I've been told the reason is that ferrets often get some pretty nasty bites while hunting rats. I've also been told that some ferrets will even receive semi serious injuries from hunting rats, and they recommend to never attempt it for the safety of you ferret. How true is this? Is this really the case when it comes to ferreting rats, or is this a bunch of rubbish fed to me by a bunch of softies who have nothing but pet ferrets they rarely hunt with?

 

I ask that because on the other hand, I've been told that ferrets do fine on rats, as long as you give them easy prey like rabbits first, and don't start the ferrets on rats too young.

 

So for those who know and have real experience with ferreting rats, please help to clarify a ferrets abilities in this area. If you don't have any first hand experience ferreting rats, please keep your opinions to yourself as I don't need any more hearsay. I've heard plenty of that already.

[Glaswegian 4]

f***ing quality pal never seen anything like it what age is the mink that caught the rats ?

[Minkenry 1,044]

f*****g quality pal never seen anything like it what age is the mink that caught the rats ?

The mink catching the muskrats in the video I posted (minkenry at it's best) was a year and a half old the time the video was made. She turned two years old last May.

[skycat 6,173]

Just been watching your videos, and so enjoyed them. I wonder if there will be anyone on here who now decides to train their ferrets to cache!

[rob190364 2,594]

There was a lad who posted vids of it a couple of years back but he was a bit deluded from memory...as in he was counting it as a retrieve when all that was happening was the ferret was taking a dead rabbit back to its nest in his garage. Dont think it did it in the field though, I think his aim was to have it bring all the baby rabbits out if it came across a nest. I'd look for the thread only I'm on my phone and its a pain in the ass.

[mushroom 12,871]

Absofuckinlutely speechless I would never in a million years believed it. My hats is off to you sir Would never catch any part of my body near a bloody mink especially my face :laugh:

[chrisbullx 2,541]

Fair play mate I take my hat off to you atb cbx

[Hydropotesinermis 724]

Awesome. Well done matey that's amazing.

 

On another note, nice avatar and uaer name frontbum

[Guest vin]

Minkenry .... welcome to the site... Its been a very long time since we had someone around here who can inspire us like you are doing.

 

Come on MODS lets get a section up on for Minkers.

[Guest vin]

 

I've been told conflicting stories about a ferrets ability to hunt rats. Can someone who has, or does hunt rats with ferrets please clarify something for me, because I am rather confused.

 

I've been told by some that ferrets often become intimidated by rats if you hunt rats too often over a prolonged period of time. I've been told the reason is that ferrets often get some pretty nasty bites while hunting rats. I've also been told that some ferrets will even receive semi serious injuries from hunting rats, and they recommend to never attempt it for the safety of you ferret. How true is this? Is this really the case when it comes to ferreting rats, or is this a bunch of rubbish fed to me by a bunch of softies who have nothing but pet ferrets they rarely hunt with?

 

I ask that because on the other hand, I've been told that ferrets do fine on rats, as long as you give them easy prey like rabbits first, and don't start the ferrets on rats too young.

 

So for those who know and have real experience with ferreting rats, please help to clarify a ferrets abilities in this area. If you don't have any first hand experience ferreting rats, please keep your opinions to yourself as I don't need any more hearsay. I've heard plenty of that already.

 

Ferrets love ratting mate...its just something that a lot of people dont do anymore.. I know my ferts love a rumble below ground with them.

 

theres that many different shapes and sizes of ferrets over here in the uk with all the inter breeding with EU polecats and various other strains including the very small Micro types that have been line bred down for size..most of them would be useless at ratting.

 

But theres still plenty of racey greyhoundy types of ferts (longer,thinner,leaner very athletic types)...they make great ratters.. we used to do lots of ratting many years ago and its true the ferrets did often take a beating off the rats...and its true..some did pack in after a few hard knocks.

But like dogs and other hunting partners,you always get the ones that just seem to be very good at it and enjoy it .

 

I think the only thing that stopped us all using the ferrets for rats was the clever bloke who invented the smoker method with and old chainsaw and some hosepipe etc etc. . . The 1st time I saw " Jonny D and his rat pack " videos was the last time we went ratting with ferrets...lol.

 

On the odd occasion when out ferreting rabbits we come across Rats sharing a warren etc etc.. I would be very disapointed in my ferrets if they didnt evacuate all occupants.

[bird 9,864]

great vid mate, well done for having a go with animal most would not want to go near it.!

[mushroom 12,871]

great vid mate, well done for having a go with animal most would not want to go near it.!

That's exactly it Bird!! In our heads and I think I speak for everyone the first thought is "fuckthat" or ""whose got the welding gloves"

 

Would never of thought it possible without years of breeding selectively