Breeder and Show Policies

Breeders

As the mandate of the Society to ensure that all ferrets are properly cared for and bearing in mind that kits must come from some source, the Society has the following guidelines for breeders of ferrets. The Society will support and work with breeders who adhere to these guidelines and allow regular inspection of the breedery to ensure that the ferrets are raised in sanitary and healthy conditions.

1) To ensure healthy breeding stock and offspring, the stock will have proper veterinary care by a licensed veterinarian: Every three months for regular stock; within 48 hours of birth for kits; thereafter as needed until eight weeks of age.

The breeding stock shall be vaccinated against distemper yearly and checked for parasites each check-up. Further, a check for Aleutian disease shall be made and any carrier animals isolated and retired from breeding. The kits shall be vaccinated against canine distemper at intervals of 6-8 weeks, 10-12 weeks, and 14-16 weeks; and also checked for parasites at each check-up.

2) To prevent inappropriate breeding, unnecessary death in females, and to make the animals suitable as pets, all kits shall be altered before passing from the control of the breeder. It is suggested that the altering is not done before twelve weeks of age.

3) To prevent congenital defects and weakening of the genetic makeup of the ferrets, a lineage of the breeding stock shall be kept and inappropriate matings avoided. New stock must be screened to ensure that it is not related to the current stock.

4) The breeder shall provide a retirement mechanism for breeding stock which provides for the comfort of the animal and a natural remaining lifespan.

At this time, no breeders of ferrets in the Province of British Columbia are known to meet any of the above criteria or have submitted evidence that demonstrates they meet these criteria.

If you are a breeder and feel that you can support the ethical, humane raising of healthy ferrets by following these guidelines, please contact us.

Shows

FIRST Society does not support shows which judge ferrets and bestow prizes for physical attributes. We feel this type of programme to be counterproductive to the raising of healthy lines of animals by promoting breeding to style rather than health. The only benefit derived from shows are to the breeder's monetary interests, not to the animals welfare.

Given the number of hereditary disabilities and predispositions already found in ferrets due to the small initial pool of animals and later indiscrimate breeding, further interference with the genetic make-up of ferrets will likely only result in greater problems.

We feel that registration and selection of lineages are unnecessary and unproductive. It is too late to breed out the extent genetic faults and there is no need to breed for the perfect Aryan ferret.