How To Choose a Baby Ferret (Part 1)

By Eric Shefferman

  We get emails all the time from people all over the world asking “I live in (fill in the blank). Where is the best place I can get a baby ferret?”

The international answer is:

  We don’t know. We haven’t really gone all over the world looking for baby ferrets. Some countries will be like the USA, some will have more private breeder ferrets and fewer pet store ferrets, some will have fewer private breeder ferrets and more pet store ferrets, and some countries just don’t have a lot of ferrets anywhere to be found.

Finding a baby ferret in the USA:

  We can say a bit about looking for baby ferrets in the USA. As long as you live in a part of the USA where ferrets are legal, the situation is pretty much the same.

Most ferrets in the USA are sold in pet stores. Why is that?

  For many reasons, ferret breeding is not as attractive as breeding other popular animals like cats or dogs.

• Whole (non-neutered) male ferrets stink when they go into rut (the male version of a female heat cycle). They’re not, “just a little stinky”; they can be “the stench is so bad my eyes are tearing!” They like to mark their turf with a trail of greasy slime. They can get dangerously aggressive with other male ferrets. This can remove their attractiveness as a housepet for a good part of the year.
   
• Whole (non-neutered) female ferrets must be bred when they go into heat, or they must be taken out of heat via a hormone shot or a false breeding with a vascectomised hob. If they are not taken out of heat by breeding or by a false breeding method, they can eventually develop aplastic anemia, which will kill them. Though this sounds far-fetched, there is a good reason for it. The wild counterparts of the ferret are solitary animals. So the way nature decided to get two of them together was to get the female ready and then have her stay ready until she came across a male that was in rut and the two mated.
   
• The ferret mating ritual is just plain rough and violent-looking compared to that of other domesticated animals. If you get upset when your ferrets just play too rough-and-tumble with each other, then you really won’t like seeing ferrets mate. Breeding females can wind up with all sorts of scars from mating, torn ears, etc. -- not the kind of things you want to have happen to your pet.
   
• Dealing with death is something ferret breeders have to do. Although all animal breeders have to deal with death, it doesn’t seem to happen with dogs and cats nearly as often or as horribly as with ferrets. Mothers sometimes eat their young. Baby ferrets are very fragile and can die from all sorts of things. Mothers can run out of milk early or get mastitis (mammary gland infections) which thus kills the young.

  All of these factors make ferret breeding a job for the people who are very devoted to ferrets, who are able to cope with the housing requirements, and who are able to deal with the life-and-death issues. Not to mention that ferret breeders have to be able to keep exacting records of which ferrets have been bred together. Also, you need to know many other ferret breeders so you can avoid inbreeding.

  On top of this, as a private breeder it is very difficult to not lose money from your breeding. All of the above make for much higher food bills, housing requirements, and veterinary bills. Breeders often have to work a job just to have the money to lose on breeding.

  If you are a ferret breeder and you’re reading this -- more power to you. However, the average person is just not equipped to cope with all of the conditions necessary to successfully breed ferrets.

  What that all means is that when you are trying to get a ferret  it is very difficult to locate a private breeder. Some areas of the country (Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania) seem to have higher concentrations of private breeders.

  If you do locate a private breeder, expect the ferrets to cost more than they do in the pet store. Expect to go through a thorough screening process -- most private ferret breeders will not let their babies go to "just anyone." Also expect to sign an agreement that you will have your ferret neutered (spayed/castrated) when he or she reaches about 9 months to a year old.

See Part 2 of this article in the next FerretNews newsletter