Caring for Baby Ferrets
– AKA Kits
Baby ferrets – the beginning
When pregnant the jill’s (female ferret) body calls for more sleep and more food throughout her pregnancy. Gestation for a ferret is approximately 42 days and will stay with the hob (Male ferret) until she show sign of uneasiness at which point she will begin building a nest.
Breeders will move the jill to a sequestered area that is kept dark clean a couple of weeks before the arrival of the baby ferrets (kits). She should be given her privacy and plenty of food and water and left undisturbed.
It is imperative after the baby ferrets are born not to handle them unless it is an emergency. Lactation in the jill will be stimulated by the mother eating the after birth which has enzymes that cause this. You should watch the mom discretely, giving her foods with a high calorie count and lots of water. You have to remember she has to feed herself and up to 8 baby ferrets.
The kits are born relatively bald and blind. The will spend the next 20 days or so sleeping, growing and nursing. But at this point you will also notice their eyes open and you will see signs of the baby ferrets color. By the time they reach 4 month, that will be pretty much how they will look throughout their adult life. It is important to know if you buy your baby ferrets from the pet store you can estimate their age buy adding the number of weeks the store had them + 7 weeks. Most kits are weaned at 6 weeks and then shipped to the pet shop at 7 weeks old.
Feeding the baby ferrets
Once the baby ferret is weaned they pretty much just eat adult food, as it is in nature. I do recommend letting their food soak in warm water for ten minutes or so to soft it up some. You can gradually soak it for less of a period and by tow weeks they should be on solid food.
I cannot stress this enough, DO NOT feed your ferret cat food. You will literally starve them of vital nutrition. Baby ferrets or adult ferrets it doesn’t matter. My friends always ask Brandon, I know everyone is saying this now, but they never explain why can you tell me. So here is what I tell them; ferrets have a very fast metabolism and what that means to you and me is that they need a high protein, High energy low fiber diet (about 35% and 20% fat) which cat food is not. What ever a ferret eats will be through him in about 4 hour (humans it takes around a day if that helps).
Your average ferret food will cost more then cat food because they are made differently, so get out of that mentality. Look at cat food and dog food there is a price difference there and do you feed your cat dog food. Specially formulated ferret diets are now available at pet shops. The newer ferret diets are formulated with palatability as well as nutritional balance in mind.
Try to avoid treats (for health reason) until it is time to train your baby ferret (well actually young adult). But that is a hole other lesson and my baby ferrets just woke up so I hope this helped
