Taxonomy

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Taxonomy

• Kingdom Animalia
• Phylum Chordata
• Class Mammalia
• Order Carnivora
• Family Mustelidae
• Genus Mustela
• Species putorius furo

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Ferrets

• Males 2-4 Females 1-2
• Long, slender, made for scrapping in narrow
  confines, quick
• Wild-type, fitch, sable is common color black
  feet, tail, face, guard hairs over cream
• 20 color variations
• Males are hobs, females are jills (kits)
• Feet have five digits, non-retractable claws

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Mustela putorius furo

• Obligate carnivore
• Related to mink, skunk, weasel, black-footed
  ferret
• Have been kept as pets for 50 yrs. There are 7
  million as pets.
• Gentle, clean, easily house-broken
• Not legal in CA HA

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Ferrets

• Simple distensible stomach short intestinal
  tract (75) typical of carnivores
• GI transit time is 3-4 hours can vomit
• Paired anal glands express scented yellow
  liquid when frightened
• BUT, this is not the source of ferret musk
• Sebaceous glands in the skin androgens
• Ferrets have few sweat glands temp !!

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Ferrets

• Respond to gentle handling
• Examination restraint one hand on neck scruff,
  other on rear legs. Digital pressure on TMJ will
  cancel a bite. Yawning..
• Can be managed in cages, or free-roaming. Will
  use litter pan. Love to crawl into secluded
  places, love to chew, eat and ingest weird
  thingsplastic, carpet, furniture parts, rubber,
  foam

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Ferrets

• Males reach puberty _at_ 8-9 mo, females at 4-12 mo.
• Normal breeding season , in a normal photoperiod
  environment, is March-August
• Normal photoperiod is increasing then
  decreasing)
• Sperm are produced from Dec-Jul, when testes
  enlarge

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Ferrets

• Females are seasonally polyestrus
• Can have two litters per year
• Ovulate 5-13 ova 30-40 hrs post copulation
• Gestation period is 41-42 days with
  pseudopregnancy of 40-43 days, if open
• 1-18 kits per litter. 6-12 g at birth. Eyes and
  ears open at 30-35 days. Wean at 6-8 weeks.
  Remain fertile for 2-5 years. First litter at 2
  yrs. 3-4 litters per yr with light cycling
  proper nutrition

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Ferrets

• Cage construction wire. Clay litter dust.
  Pine bedding chemicals respiratory tract.
• Comfort range is 39F-64F40-65 RH.
• Ferrets may overheat at 80F.
• Will eat several times per day. CHO fiber are
  not handled well. Will eat low-fiber fruits
  vegs, but might impact if too many.

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Ferrets

• Diet should contain 30-40 meat CHON 15-30
  Fat. Preg females require 35 25. Commercial
  ferret feed or cat food mixed with liver.
• Prefer poultry over beef or fish. Must have
  water to stimulate consumption of food.
• Breeding cages need nest box, bedding, 6 sides.
  Coitus is active. Male bites neck, drags jill
  about intromission ovulation. Manual
  palpation _at_ 2 weeks. Parturition over 2-3 hours.
  Jill stimulates neonatal urination defecation.
  

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Figure 7.10 Domestic rabbits are available in a
variety of sizes and coat colors. Courtesy Dr.
James E. Corbin.
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Taxonomy

• Kingdom Animalia
• Phylum Chordata
• Class Mammalia
• Order Lagomorpha
• Family Leporidae
• Genus Oryctolagus Lepus
• Species cuniculus americanus

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LagomorhsOryctolagus or Lepus

• Evolved in Europe South Africa
• Domesticated 1400 years ago original wild
  population still exists. Fossil rabbits go back
  30 million years.
• Social animals, live in warrens. Domestication
  has caused weight classes, hair groups (Rex,
  normal, long-hair Angora), breeds, colors (one,
  two, three, or albino), color patterns

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Lagomorphs

• Lightweight bones half as dense as cats, have a
  third eye-lid, a wide field of vision, good light
  sensitivity.
• Rabbit teeth are open-rooted and are continuously
  worn down by opposing teeth and by abrasion on
  food. Thoracic cavity and heart are relatively
  smallbut intestinal tract is relatively long
  10x length.

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Rabbits and Hares

• Stomach is simple and glandular. Cecum (caecum)
  is capacious.
• Inguinal canals remain open for life.
• Cervix has internal and external ora.
• Female rabbits have two bands of mammary tissue
  (four or five glands per band) extending from
  ventral neck to groin.

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Physiologica Lagomorpha

• Strict herbivores. Chew food to a powder size,
  except for feces swallowed directly from anus.
• Induced ovulators. Ovulate 9-13 hours following
  copulation. In natural environs, there is an
  autumnal infertility (reluctance to breed and
  reduced ovulatory response)
• Can breed all year if alter light to 14 hours
  on - 10 hours off

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Physiologica Lagomorpha

• Rabbits normally live 5-6 years in wild, but if
  fed well as pets, can live 10-12 years. A doe
  may produce from 7-25 litters in her productive
  lifetime each with 7-8 young.
• Does may breed within hours of kindling and can
  lactate and successfully gestate the next litter
  simultaneously.
• Rabbit urine is cloudy (CaCHO3 crystals),
  alkaline, light yellow to orange-red

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Rabbit Behavior

• Gentle pets, but can inflict sever scratches with
  rear feet when frightened.
• Rabbits will bite likely because the finger
  looks like food, such as a carrot stick.
• Male rabbits do castrate one another. Sibling
  females raised and matured together seem to get
  along.

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Rabbit Behavior

• Take bucks to does cage for breeding.
• Breeding will normally occur in a very few
  minutes (85 of time).
• Breeding success is obvious.
• Pseudopregnancies do occur.
• Rabbits may thump one rear leg when alarmedand
  may spray urine on intruder outside of cage.

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Rabbit Nutrition

• Rabbits digest some fiber, but growth is
  optimized at 15-17 CF. But, diarrhea, gastric
  atony, and hairballs are reduced significantly if
  fiber in diet is increased to 22.
• Digest about 70 of plant-origin protein, and
  ingest cecotrophs directly from anus. Cecotrophs
  (droppings, feces) are vitamin- and protein-rich
• Caprophagy takes place in am and is not retarded
  when rabbits are house on wire floors

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Rabbit Nutrition

• Commercial pellets usually alfalfa-based,
  contain 15-17 CF AND 15-19 CP.
• Alfalfa-based diets cause concern with
  urolithiasis blood plasma Ca elevated.
• Medium size, non-preg will eat 4-6 oz per day,
  but lactating does should be fed ad-libitum (4-6
  weeks nursing)
• Affect food quantity and type changes gradually
  intestinal substrates and microbial populations
  may change and cause fatal enteropathies

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Rabbit Housing

• Rabbits can be litter box- or latrine-area
  trained and have free run of house.
• Cage individually in wire cages 1.5x1.5 for
  small 3x3 for large
• Breeder rabbits need 6 sq ft of floor space an
  externally mounted nest box kindling
• Require a feeder, sipper bottle, and toy

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Rabbit Housing

• Comfortable in 40F-85F, but can take cold weather
  if acclimated and enclosed.
• Heat stress is result of elevated temp, direct
  sunlight, water deprivation elevated temps can
  cause buck infertility
• Keep hutches clean to reduce ammonia gas emissions

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Rabbit Reproduction

• Sex mature bucks- 6-10 mo, does- 4-9 mo
• Does are receptive for cycles of 7-10 days, then
  flatten until next wave occurs
• Can palpate fetuses at 10-14 days. Place nest
  box at day 25, gestate for 29-34 da. Young are
  delivered at night- hairless, blind, helpless
• Doe nurses young infrequently for less than 3
  minutes total time. Young start eating maternal
  feces at two weeks

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Rabbit Reproduction

• Rabbit milk resembles bitch milk high CHON,
  fat, minerals but kitten milk replacers are
  used to raise orphans.
• Weaned rabbits may need to be taught to use
  sipper tubes.
• Can be group housed until 3-4 months. Meat
  rabbits are slaughtered at 8 weeks.intensively
  bred rabbits may produce 40 live offspring that
  reach 8 weeks in one year.
• Rabbits rank fifth in world meat production

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