Hello all, 1st post here, as the title says we have just got a polecat, its 7weeks old in a rabbits hutch in the garden. we feed it catfood and mixer biscuits, handle her as much as possible (she has stopped biting now!) basicly we are after a few tips on what to feed her and how to get her harness trained, and any ideas on how to keep her occupied when we're not around, ie , stimulating toys etc. many thanks in advance
Paul.

Hi we have 4 jills and 2 hobs and a nest of 9 kits we feed our ferrets special ferret food and dead rabbits, phesents, livers, kidneys some feed mince and dead chicks too, best way to keep ferret entertained is have lots of toys we have branches for them to climb on you might be better getting another one as company too, we wont take them from mum till they are 8 weeks old. We just put the harness on ours and let it have a sniff about.

Thanks for the reply poppy, how much exercise does it need? at the moment its stuck in its rabbits hutch 24/7! is this normal/ok? we got it a lead but its neck is too small at the moment to fit, (cant wait to take it for a walk)
Thanks
Paul.

feed as much raw meat as possible (chicken wings, fatty mince, turkey, rabbit). its best to introduce when young as possible as when ferrets get older it may not take to raw, which is, imo, the best way to feed. dump the cat food and biscuits and get some quality ferret food vitlin or james wellbeloved. also whole prey is excellent for a ferret! think mice (can be expensive), day old chicks (very cheap) but dont over do the chicks.

you may find she will nip a lot? i found with my gill she was always hanging off of my finger when i treid to pick her up
what i did was let her have a good feed first and the biting rapidly reduced.

handle her every day and soon she will be your best buddy
never slap her if she bites as this will make her scared of hands and may make it worse. give a big firm NO or try hissing. this can be difficult as your screaming in pain

personally i would not have a ferret on its own, they are very sociable. they will sleep and play together.

mine will come in the house and play for a minimum of 1 hour a day. ferrets love to play and they never grow up, they may slow down as they get older, but they never grow up.

are you aware of the season thing?

Thanks Nelson, she has stopped nipping, well me anyway, she nipped our neibour the other day! (lol). will try and get more raw meat for her
Thanks for all the advice and no i dont know about the "season" thing?
My wife has had polecats when she was in her teens, so she has all the info
but i came on this forum to find out for myself,
Cheers
Paul.

You definitely need to give her some play time in your house for at LEAST an hour every day. Especially as she is on her own! She certainly needs alot more "out" time than she is getting.

The best entertainment for a ferret? Another ferret. I would seriously look into getting a friend for her. When i got my first ferret he was on his own and a nightmare! as soon as i got my second ferret he calmed down alot and it is so lovely to watch them play. Toys are good too, just be careful with anything rubber - they like to chew these and can chew of chunks. Cat toys on bouncy strings, cat balls and tunnels all go down well with mine.

Also, if she is going to be in a hutch in the garden maybe look into getting her a chicken coop/run or something similar? she needs a bit more space than a hutch can offer her.

the season thing.....when female ferrets hit sexual maturity (will be next spring now for your girly) they come into heat. Unless they are mated they will stay in season. This can cause anemia and eventually she will die. You have some options available to you - 1.spay her this winter, 2. get her the jill jab, which will bring her out of season but you may have to give her it more than once throughout the breeding season, 3. get her mated by a vasectomised hob.

do you have any pics?

any more questions give me a shout xxxx

Cheers fuzzy have taken all that in and we will get round to doing some of your advice.
Thanks
Paul and Lee.

Do you have a harness or a collar?

H style harnesses are usually secure, and can fit a range of sizes. Jills tend to be quite diddy and a lot of harnesses are too big.
There is an online shop called ferret couture that does small sized harnesses, their harnesses are very nice, but also expensive
I bought my H style harnesses from Ebay. They are leather, fit my small jills and can have extra holes put in if I needed to, luckily they were an ok size to start with.