ferret giving birth
Bellow you can find a video of a ferret giving birth. Video starts one day before birth. You can see the kits moving in the belly (first 60 seconds). From min. 1 kits start being born. In this particular situation all kits are sable color, but you can not determine the coat color until babies get approximately 3 weeks old.
The coat color is not visible until 3 weeks of age, however if you know the parents and their background you can know (or in a certain circumstances only predict) their coat color in advance. You can also spot albino babies immediately after birth. Regardless of the fact that the eyes of kits are closed and sealed and gonna stay like this for approximately 30 days from birth, you can see if eyes behind an eyelid are black or "no colored". If you can not see the black color behind the sealed eyelids, this means that the baby is an albino and has red eyes. Red eyes automatically mean albino kit.
In this particular litter in the video bellow - 11 kits were born, 10 survived. 5 males and 5 females. It is very rare that the gender (sex) of the kits in the litter is so evenly distributed, i.e. 5 and 5.
Ferret kits are born after 42 days of pregnancy. They weight approximately 10 g, are born with soft baby fuzz as fur. At the time of birth they are blind, deaf and without teeth. Interestingly enough their baby teeth erupt before their eyes open.
Kits grow fast. In another videos on our channel you can see these kits growing up.
More on ferret birth
Q. How long does it take for a ferret to have babies?
A. Ferret pregnancy last for 42 days +/- 1 day. What is exactly 6 weeks.
If you believe that your ferret jill is pregnant and she has not delivered on the 43rd day, please take her to your veterinarian immediately. Kits that are not delivered up till 43rd day of pregnancy most always die in uterus. At this point the question most likely will not be about saving the kits, but about saving your jill (female ferret). Kits dyeing in uterus is very dangerous for your jill.
Q. How many babies do ferrets have at a time?
A. Ferret babies are called "kits". Ferrets can have from 0 up to 16 kits in one litter.
If everything goes well and a ferret female has successfully conceived and successfully has carried the babies the size of the litter can vary a lot. In general in domestic environment the average litter size will be 8 kits (babies). Litters of 10 or even more kits are also very common. However sometimes a ferret female can deliver only one or two kits. In nature the regular litter size will be smaller - averring around 6 kits.
Q. How Long Does It Take for Ferrets to Give Birth?
A. As with all the animals including humans the exact time of delivery can vary a lot. Very much depends on the particular individual situation. Usually the delivery process for the entire litter of the ferret would take from two to four hours. A little bit longer than that can be normal too. However, if your ferret female seems to be in labor for longer than 12 hours, please contact your veterinary immediately. Many things can be wrong here. She could be suffering from complications, such as a kit being stuck inside her. If you do not act quick it can cause the death of the babies or even the death of the ferret jill.
VIDEOS ABOUT THESE FERRET KITS GROWING:
Ferret kits from 1 to 15 days old
Ferret kits from 15 to 24 days old
Ferret kits from 29 to 35 days old