We all know the facts of life or I would hope we all do, so why do people
get a baby, Hob and Jill  then when they mature do nothing about it, all it 
takes is separate cages and a trip to the vets but no they let them mate have 
a litter in double figures and when they find nobody wants a pet ferret they 
bring the lot to us, including the parents a lot of the time, or when its too 
late they neuter the parents and we get the babies.

One case was a family got four ferrets let two Jills get pregnant one had 
two 12 week old babies one had two 3 week old babies (at time of pick 
up) that's eight ferrets now, so they call us in to take the lot, the kid are
bored of them and they needed room for the quad bikes, they were fed well
and had wonderful great big cages in the garage, but what they did was so 
irresponsible.

The other type of person is "I thought you had to breed the jills every 
year" has a litter in double figures and finds nobody wants a pet ferret
then brings us the babies, can you see a paten emerging here.

The paten is we end up full of young ferrets the last litter we had in was in
late November 2006 which was just 18 days ago, with 12 days to Christmas
day, at this time, re-homing a ferret is not something that is on peoples 
minds, the boys have started to mature and are fighting so we have to put 
one boy to a cage as there testes drop we get them neutered along with the 
girls, which costs a lot and is a drain on the funds because all our income, 
comes in the summer at shows. And all because of people not being 
responsible.

Its all very simple when your babies mature at around 6 months when the
Hobs testes drop get him down the vets for the chop, now would be a good
time to get the Jills done, she would come into season a month or two later,
and the vet will not neuter a Jill in season, so she would have to be given a
Jill jab or put with a vasectomized Hob to bring her out of season before 
the operation.

Remember that having your ferrets neutered not only stops unwanted
pregnancy's but the smell as well.

The picture on the left is Sasha and was 
take on 26th December 2006, as you can see 
she is in season, which is indicated by the 
swollen vulva, she is this years baby, she will 
be put with a vasectomized Hob to bring her 
out of season, just four weeks before, a baby 
Hob she was living with came into season, he 
was castrated, if we had left them together 
without doing anything it could have ended 
in an unwanted pregnancy.

If you have lots of Jills and do not want to 
neuter them, they still have to be brought out 
of season, don't breed, get a Hob vasectomized,
yes you can vasectomize a ferret, then he will bring your Jills out of season, 
with no babies.

Before you have a litter ask yourself how many people do you know that 
like ferrets and would want one, probably none, you may like having 
babies but it can quickly turn into your worst nightmare, 10 babies is
common, they will need lots of food and cages as they grow and you will
be desperate to re-home them, that's when you will look for a rescue center
to pass the problem on, so think before you breed.