Big Hello From A Ferreting Newbie - Pic Heavy -

[Alice Taylor 4]

Hi there,

 

after a few weeks of ghosting on the forum i thought i would join up and get the full experience
My name is Alice, i am regularly joined by my Fiance Russell and our two dogs Jack and Grouse,

we have recently taken on a private yard for my horses and after much suggestion ( read pestering) i agreed that the Hubby-to-be could get some ferrets. he had them many years ago when he lived in Cornwall and circumstances hadn't been right to have any more until we took on this place.

so off i popped to eBay to find a nice little hutch for them, me being me did a bit of research and realised the needed a whole lot more space than i originally thought! we were getting two Albino Ferts that had been seen working and were deemed brilliant (mainly for me the complete beginner!) so home came Tonks ( Jill) and Orion(hob/ unrelated) ( i must name them all ) into a rather large chicken coop that i had deemed big enough for two.
its roughly 6ftx3ft and 3ft tall plenty of space in the nesting box and outside run ( or so i thought!) fast forward 3 months and we now have 9 Ferts!

4 Jills and 5 Hobs. with 5 living together, Orion off on his own because he is an anti social Git and 3 Jill kits growing up a bit before then can join the bigger ones. so now we have:

 

Orion - Hob - Albino - Unrelated - 2 years old

Tonks - Jill - Albino - Unrelated - 3 years old

Pantalaimon - Hob - polecat - Brother to Fiddick - 9 months old

Fiddick - Hob - Polecat - brother to Pan - 9 months old

Bear - Hob - Polecat - Brother to Apollo - 6 months old ish

Apollo - Hob- Sandy? - brother to bear - 6 months old ish

Venus - Jill - Sandy - Unrelated - 1 year old
Patch - Jill - Grey with patches- Sister to Pads - 4 months

Pads - Jill - Grey with patches ( on her knees) Sister to Patches - 4 months



so as you can imagine what started out with best of intentions ( im sure!) to only have a couple that Russell worked, we are being steadily over run by catsnakes!

they get out of the hutches everyday for at least an hour, playing in pairs or more in stables or out working but i have decided that they need more space! with the plan to Castrate or Vasectomise (sp?) all the hobs we would ideally have them all in together and only separate when the Jills come into heat, at which point we will pull the Vasectomised boys out into their own place to share with the lovely lady

so.

we have sourced a 6x7ft shed that seems to be in good condition with the plan to have that as a starting point of out court. we ar then planning on building a 6x3x3 run off the long side of the shed to extend and allow access to some fresh air. we will fill the shed with tubes, boxes, hammocks. all the usual stuff and bed down on either Straw of the eucalyptus based shredded stuff that i use for the horse. The ferrets seem to love snuffling about in the shavings so that may be the decider.

my question to you lovely lot is:

will this be enough space for 9 Ferts? full time living in a 6x7 shed with a 6x3 run access during the day or do i need to think about something bigger or more? do i need to separate the Jills and Hobs? Tonks currently lives with 5 of the boys and keeps them in line well enough. I dont think our current plan is to breed at all but Russ may change his mind. currently everything is entire with only Orion ( sh*t bag as he is fondly called) in seclusion because he was dragging Tonks around too forcefully. he will be the first to have his jewels removed forever to be a bachelor.



any advice or suggestions would be MUCH appreciated for this research driven Noob.


Pics of Ferrets are in no order and are not that recent. i will try to get recent ones soon

 

Current Set up of a mismatched load of hutches: ( and Grouse )

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grouse and Pan are tentative friends!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[terryd 8,363]

Very nice dog and welcome Do you find them hutches with the runs on concrete a pain to keep clean and the whole setup seems to get very wet

I have one like the first one in the first pic and it just ended up a wet mess. So I just used the run part in the summer

Edited September 13, 2016 by terryd

[Alice Taylor 4]

they are on rubber mats at the moment as the floor isn't totally level. it can be a real pain when it chucks it down but i guess as with everything in the country, we need to be preparer for the wet weather! there are plenty of dry areas for the ferrets to go to to get out of the wet twice a week we lift the hutches and wash the mats down, this seems to help keep the dirt down to a minimum.

[mad4it 694]

Hello and welcome to thl nice set up by the way there will be plenty of room in the 6x7 shed and 6x3 run for the ferrets

[Sirblessed 2,511]

Thats heaps of room. Welcome A.T.B

[just-A-snap 1,269]

Welcome and pleasant time

[Alice Taylor 4]

Thank you everyone im glad that it will be enough room. hopefully it will look a little tidier as well and appease my neat freak mentality.

[The one 8,457]

Hello and welcome mate the more room you can give them the better

[Haiddheliwr 1,911]

Hi. Welcome to THL site! Keep us informed of your exploits with the ferrets. By the way excellent intro!

[DanishHunter 1]

Hello there, and welcome!

[Alice Taylor 4]

Thanks for the warm welcome!

unfortunately the shed we were getting from a well known 2nd hand website has fallen through so we are now on the hunt for another. i have seen a couple of 6x4s and then bigger but nowhere near the kind of price range we are looking at.

back to the drawing board and we will keep searching i think

[jok 3,187]

Hello you. Good thing going there. Are they all working ferrets? Leics and roughly where are you.? I just met a guy who lives and works very local to me and we have arranged a bit of a meet. He's working in Ashby de la Zouch. Flipping small world really on this forum. I agree, good intro and look forward to more comments. ATB. Jok.

[j j m 6,533]

welcome mate

[Alice Taylor 4]

Hi Everyone me again.....


so not quite a year later but near enough. UPDATE:

we have found a shed ( wooden play house) and are in the process of building a 12ft x 9ft run ( basically a release pen) that should arrive next week.

my next question for everyone who were so lovely last time i posted is, how the heck do i connect the Shed and the run. im thinking of just building the shed in the run. maybe this would work?
or a catflap? maybe a pipe with a closing end ( to keep them out whilst cleaning)
last weekend was taken up by starting the base plate for the run and laying slabs.

We still have all 9 ferrets and they are pretty much all good workers, the two youngest and smallest are basically useless and refuse to go down a hole but it makes no difference to us as we have 7 others that are fab. so good in fact that we are now running/ Ran our of land to go on. my 7 acres are rabbit free near enough so we ae giving them a chance to recover before we hit them again.
i plan to post pics of the Court once its all set up Take care


PS. my brother picked up a Bull lurcher pup last sunday, 8 weeks and already showing signs that he is going to be a cracking dog. any advice on how to get a good start would be much appreciated

[The one 8,457]

A cat flap as long as you can lock it while your cleaning them out as said but most folk use drainage pipe the perforated type so they can get a grip no the smooth type