p 



CHAPTER VI. 



BREEDING. 



ROPER care and handling from the time 

 the female comes into heat until the 

 young are old enough to wean, is a critical 

 period in ferret raising and here generally 

 hinges success or failure. Methods followed at 

 the various ferret farms are somewhat different, 

 partly owing to numbers kept, yet the general 

 procedure is much the same, whether a few jills 

 (females) only or hundreds are kept. 



When the farm or ferret colony is an exten- 

 sive one, the female (also known as doe or jill) 

 is put in with the buck and left for 24 hours. 

 The coming into heat signs are much the same 

 as a bitch. One breeder says that during this 

 period the female resembles a sow pig. The 

 period of swelling lasts a week or longer. When 

 the proper time arrives to take the male, the 

 exposed swollen part of the female will be about 

 as large as a grain of corn. 



To further explain we will take a farm where 

 say 100 females and 20 males are kept. Straw 



61 



