All of this is illegal in most of the US.
Most states allow live coursing, but ferreting is a no-no.
That’s because we have some hysteria about ferrets colonizing here.
Ferrets have been here since colonization, and there are no feral ferret colonies.
However, there are tons of feral cats running about. Feral cats have a definite impact on wildlife.
No one has provided any evidence that domestic ferrets would last long in the wild here.
Further, they’d have to compete in the wild with all our native mustelids, plus all our native larger predators.
And if there were a law requiring all hunting ferrets to be spayed or neutered, there would be no chance of them producing feral colonies– even if they could somehow survived to reproduce in the wild. (Female ferrets that aren’t used for breeding are almost always spayed for significant health reasons.)
The ferrets that colonized New Zealand were not pure ferrets at all. They were crossed with European polecats, which are the likely wild ancestor of the domestic ferret.
I don’t know of anyone who has polecats or polecat hybrids in the United States. The vast majority of ferrets on the pet market here are from populations that have been bred for really domestic temperaments.
And I know that someone is going to chime in that American cottontail rabbits don’t dig warrens to birth their young, so it’s useless to use ferrets to drive rabbits out of warrens they don’t use.
There is a problem with this analysis:
Cottontails will go into groundhog dens and pipes when the weather gets very bad in the winter. That’s when you can use a ferret.
Ferreting has been illegal in my state for decades.
My own grandpa illegally ferreted in the 50’s, taking his albino ferret out on the coldest winter days to drive cottontail rabbits out of groundhog dens, where he quickly dispatched them with karate chops to the back of the head. Things went well until his dog killed the ferret.
I love this cream-colored lurcher. She has such an intelligent expression, and she looks so proud when she catches a rabbit.
More footage:
I work in ferret rescue and have a keen intrest in the little fellas.
The majority of ferrets available as pets in the USA are sold already spayed and neutered. Through large commercial breeders like Marshall Farms and Path Valley who also breed these guys for research. Because of their background currently here in the US they tend to have lost the abilty to hunt. There are very few breeders out there who sell unaltered ferrets. The breeders breed mostly for show purposes-however there are 1-3 breeders in the States and Canada that have imported polecats and polecat hybrids to help health problems in their lines.
You also managed to touch on a sore spot for ferrets enthusiasts in the states. California has outlawed ferrets based on the success of the polecat hybrids in New Zealand and refuses to budge on their postion. Like I said, most of the ferret population in the states come from the afore mentioned commercial breeders and they are moved to a petstore when very young. . .ferrets like rats to some extent imprint on food through their mother’s milk and what they are feed as kits. Both of these commercial breeders have their own food they market and feed. Very few ferrets will even eat real meat-just kibble. . . (thought there is a small movement to place them on a more species appropriate diet of whole prey or franken prey since they are obligate carnivores like cats) To make the inital change to different kibbles (since the breeders kibbles are of rather low quality) is a big task. There are many ferrets who refuse to even change kibble brands or who go on hunger strike and do great damage to themselves when their kibble changes formulations. They have super touchy GI tracts and are prone to bleeding ulcers and stress related issues.
That then touches on an interesting theory I stumbled upon when doing research into the breed’s history. They were regarded as superior hunters, ratters and mousers to cats in the colonies. Why didn’t they become more popular with colonists or move into the wild like cats did? They were harder to keep and harder to breed.
Kristy
They really don’t need to be able to kill a rabbit. They just need to be able to go underground and scare the rabbit. Rabbits are preyed upon by wild mustelids, and just the presence of a ferret would make them bolt.
Those ferrets often offered on the pet trade do have some genetic diversity and health issues.
My ex runs a ferret-rescue and they are all on raw diet…
Mine is a Marshall ferret and I’ve ratted with him before. He even ate a quail once and got into my herptile collection.
That is cool Dave! I had a little MF guy named Arte that had severe EGE (an autoimmune disorder of the GI) and he was the only MF ferret I have know personally that ate raw. (It was all he could eat). He was also the one of the few I have seen with ANY prey drive. Oddly enough he was found wandering about on a highway in the backwoods. I have tried many different ways to switch my personals to raw and no matter how slow I go they will turn their noses up and go without food for several days and that is no good for them. Ulcers all around. . .
There is a holistic ferret proboard group that I enjoy where they have quite a few converts but many of those are private bred ferrets raised on raw though there are a few MF that do switch.
What happened to your tegu?
Now you’re just trolling me.
Then they would do the job quite well if they didn’t need to follow through with anything. Heck, I have heard that many in the ferret community just scatter their scat around their gardens to keep rabbits away. I honestly haven’t tried it though.
You are correct about the health issues and genetic problems. The pet buying public dictates prefered color. Albinos are distinctly unpopular and the regular dark sables are found “boring” . Those 2 colors were the original colorations. Fancy colors in every animal are sought after and in ferrets much of that coloration is related to waardenburg related disorders. Lots of deafness, Cleft palets, GI issues, dwarfism, and early deaths in those ferrets. 99.9% of the ferrets in the rescue I work with are from these farms so I get to see a decent sample of all their problems. . .Ferrets as a whole suffer greatly buy being spayed and neutered (adrenal disease). They suffer being exposed to unnatural lighting patterns (adrenal disease again). They suffer from eating kibbles with to many carbs in them too (insulinoma). Those are just the big 2. They are litttle cancer magnets.
I wouldn’t trade them though. I would like husbandry changes that would greatly improve their health. But that would make them less suitable for the easy pet keeping that ferret owners are accustomed to.
How interesting. I did not know ferreting was illegal in the states.
I keep working ferrets, in the UK ferreting it is a popular country pastime, and effective part of a rabbit control programme. Despite the fact that ferrets are frequently lost in the English countryside they have never become established in the wild.
I wonder how different your ferrets are from ours. All will eat raw meat, if kibble is not available, and they generally have few health problems provided that females are spayed or jill jabbed, if not bred from.
Pippa
For commercial bred ferrets the average lifespan appears to be 5-7, but, many die young and the typical disease of old age for you guys (adrenal and insulinoma) start as young as 1 year and 3 years respectively. The males are far smaller than the UK or European bred ferrets I have met and the females far larger. Our hobs weigh about 3 pounds our females typically 2. They also are not nearly as active or able problems solvers as those I have met bred from European stock. Around here a ferret is “old” at 4 typically. The European stock ones I have met live till 8 or 9 typically entering old age at 6 or sevenish.
There are 2 main differences outside genetic material that I have noted between here and there. In the UK it they are living or spending portions of their days/nights outside in a run or a shed. Here they are indoor only typically. The other difference is they are almost all spayed or neutered and at a very young age. Studies have shown that even though a ferret has had its gonads removed they continue to release hormones during their breeding season except now their is no receptor for the hormones that signal them to turn off and they ramp up to adrenal disease which can become cancerous and they are in season until the hormones are shut off or countered. Terribly stressful on their systems and the problem is tough to stop.
It depends on the state.
It used to be illegal in many states to even own a ferret for fear that they would colonize and take over.
It’s still illegal in California and Hawaii. Hawaii has strict import laws for just about every animal, which it can enforce. California has a lot of underground ferret owners.