Caring for Your Baby Ferret
Like most mammals, baby ferrets need a lot of care. Baby (kit) ferrets are able to leave their mothers at 6 weeks of age, but in place of Mom they need to get the proper attention and care from us in order to ensure a long happy healthy life.
You should learn about caring for kits before a litter is born. The female should not be touched while she is giving birth. Handling a female ferret while she is giving birth is dangerous to her young, and also risky as she could become hostile.
The litter size typically is about seven or eight babies. The kits are born blind and are practically hairless with a pink complexion. They spend the first part of their lives just eating, sleeping, and growing.
It takes about 20 days for the kits’ fur to darken and soon thereafter their eyes will begin to open. After reaching six weeks of age they are able to leave their mothers. A baby ferret should get its first series of vaccinations by seven weeks of age, and you should think about having them de-scented and fixed.
Kits must first be weaned off their old diet. Find out from the breeder which brand of food they have been eating when you get your new ferret. If you decide to use the same brand of food you should soak it in warm water for five minutes before you give it to the baby ferret. If you are switching brands of ferret food, you must purchase the old brand and gradually mix the new food into their diet.
Ferrets used to eat cat food but now there is high-quality ferret food available. Ferrets, especially during infancy, need a higher quality of protein in their diet, which cat food does not offer. You should make sure that and ferret food you buy contains at least 20% fat and 35% protein. Balanced fats like poultry fat is a better blend of essential fatty acids and is better for baby ferrets. A ferrets’ water should be changed once a day, and they should always have water available.
To keep your kit safe and give it plenty of room to move about, it should be housed in a large, clean ferret-specific cage. A ferret cage is large because ferrets are very active and need room for safe play. Avoid metal bottom cages that corrode easily, and if you purchase plastic coated wire make sure your baby ferret is not chewing on it.
Ferrets need dark, quiet places to hide. They like to sleep and burrow in soft padding. Bedding should be checked to make sure they are not eating it, as this will cause a block in their intestinal tract.
Baby ferrets are very active and require lots of love and attention after they are born for them to live a long and healthy life.
