Keeping a hob from same litter

[Ethan gunn 1]

Hi I have 5 kits 2 hobs 3 Jill’s and I’m thinking about keeping this silver jill but on the other hand there’s a silver hob and I need a hob to bring my Jill’s out in future seasons but I was thinking even if he has a vasectomy is it still incest if I use him to take out that silver hill from the same litter and the hill I used for the litter, obviously if I was breeding him with them it would be incest but if I check the vasectomy works on my other Jill’s that have no correlation to him and it has worked would it be alright to use him on the Jill’s he is family with? The only reason I’m thinking about this is because I can see he’s going to be a big hob and I would much prefer to keep him over getting one from someone else’s litter, thanks 

[vfr400boy 3,367]

Won't make any difference keep him

[The one 8,474]

If your getting him snipped it wont matter 

[gnipper 6,459]

Won't matter if he's snipped but make sure he is because the fact that it's silver x silver would be worse than the fact it's incestuous. 

[Chevy Chase 79]

As said won’t matter but once you’ve had him vasectomised you’ll need to check it’s worked with an unrelated Jill 

[Franks dad 857]

On 03/08/2024 at 23:03, gnipper said:

Won't matter if he's snipped but make sure he is because the fact that it's silver x silver would be worse than the fact it's incestuous. 

Pardon my ignorance on this … but what’s bad about a silver x silver ? 

[gnipper 6,459]

1 hour ago, Franks dad said:

Pardon my ignorance on this … but what’s bad about a silver x silver ? 

It's meant to be like the merle gene in collies where if you breed two together it can mess them up. 

[Franks dad 857]

2 hours ago, gnipper said:

It's meant to be like the merle gene in collies where if you breed two together it can mess them up. 

Ahhh .. I did not. No this about either of the above … thanks for enlightening me … ( thumbs up) …. 

[gnipper 6,459]

Personally I have bred silver to silver before I knew it could go wrong and most of the litter were poleys with 2 silvers and if I remember rightly one of the silvers was eaten by the rest, was he defective or something else? I know lads who still breed them together and he only gets small litters of 2 or 3 so I wonder how many are born defective and eaten by the jill or something similar? I'm not entirely clued up on the science behind it but if you Google it you'll find out more info.

[Aussie Whip 4,097]

On 02/08/2024 at 16:23, Ethan gunn said:

is it still incest if I use him to take out that silver hill from the same litter

Well it is really but ferrets have no morals and are totally evil, sort of like hillbillies but with better teeth.

[Bobtheferret 1,248]

I have had issues breeding silvers in general. Twice now I have breed and silver to a polecat and had crippled youngsters. Same thing twice they seemed fine when they were very little and as they started walking around properly there back legs just kind of gave up, definitely something in the silver gene that isn’t quite right. 

[Chico11 5]

If you're set on keeping that silver hob, getting him snipped seems like the best move it won't matter then, and you can keep that big fella in the family without any worries.

[The one 8,474]

I used to run my hob with 6 jills all year and there was never a problem as he was snipped but with just one jill he might hurt it or cut it so maybe your 3 will be okay with have to keep taking him out