# Ferrets....silver x silver matings?



## saxon (Feb 26, 2007)

I know there are issues with breeding silver x silver so have never in the many years I've owned ferrets bred silvers together!

For the life of me I cannot remember what the issues were although I'm sure it was health related and something to do with the heads of the kits or the brains?

I've just had to tell a member that I cannot let him have my silver hob kit as he was planning to breed him to a light silver jill and wanted to be giving him the correct information.

Can someone, who knows what they're talking about, remind what the issues are with silvers please.


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## gnipper (Feb 13, 2007)

I think its waardenburgs syndrome they can get amongst other problems. When I was a kid and didn't know about not breeding them together I bred a perfectly healthy litter of 7 (most were poleys) but I wouldn't risk it now. Its like breeding two merle dogs together, it might not cause problems but then it can produce some hideous results.


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## saxon (Feb 26, 2007)

Yes I checked and that is what I came up with as well.

I seem to recollect breeding two silvers, the called siberian silvers, about 15 year ago but can't remember ay problems with the kits at that time.
Maybe this is something that has come about as the silvers are so inbred since they were first around?
Also does this affect the dark silvers, as all but one of mine are darks, as I say I wouldn't breed them together but I am curious.


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## gnipper (Feb 13, 2007)

From what i've learnt they say to breed albino x silver which will guve you a lighter silver and a chance of black eyed whites. I'd imagine that any albino's from a silver x albino mating bred back to a silver would probably give you plenty of silvers in the litter.


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## saxon (Feb 26, 2007)

I have a lovely pair of albino boys here, very small, who carry silver as there were silvers in the litter.

I think I may keep one then and if I do decide to breed next year I can use him on the dark silver jill who is not from his litter. The dark silver jill has a dark silver mother but the albino boys mother is a dark polecat who may have eu in her and the the father is my poley hob. The dark polecat also carries silver, apparently, as she had two silver hobs in her litter.

My litters this year are total outcross although some idiot on another forum has 'inferred' that my lines are inbred because one of my jills may be a micro!. Which is impossible as my hobs are totally unrelated to my jills!

So really I was correct to advise the person who wanted my silver hob not to breed two silvers?
I may offer him the other albino who carries silver if he's interested!
At least he'll get his silvers next year then!


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## happyferret (Jul 18, 2011)

Quite a few people who have done this silver to silver have had deformities in the kits- missing legs, e.t.c. There was a person on one of these forums recently that had to kill there whole litter as the kits were born without legs. 

Quote from Fox JG, Biology and Disease of the Ferret, 2nd edition.1998.

'Congenitally defective kits may cause dystocia'. (dystocia is where kits get stuck inside the birth canal and stop other kits being born) 'Breeding silver ferrets to each other is associated with poor reproductive performance and a high incidence of congenital deformities. Many black-eyed whites of either sex are sterile, even when bred to sables. The effect of some congenital head abnormalities in one or more kits (e.g. cyclops, exencephaly, severe cleft plates) interfere with the normal initiation of labour and delivery of an otherwise normal litter'

The National Ferret Welfare Society:

Be careful when breeding silvers. Silver to silver matings can produce genetically deformed offspring. There is a defect in some silver genes that causes deformation if two silvers carrying the gene are mated. In theory, if two ferrets carrying a recessive faulty gene are mated, then the chance of that default being expressed in the kits is 25%. If the dominant faulty gene is present in both parents the risk rockets to 75%. Remember that a faulty gene can be carried without being expressed. Many silver to silver matings produce healthy offspring but all too many go tragically wrong.


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## saxon (Feb 26, 2007)

Thanks for that.

I haven't bred silvers together it was that someone wanted my silver hob kit to breed to a silver jill and I couldn't remember what it was that was the problem with breeding them together....I explained to him there could be problems and said I couldn't let him have my kit to breed to another silver.

Now the issue I have is that all my ferrets are from silver in their ancestry and I'm not concerned that this could casue issues eve if I breed two none silver ferrets.
Two of my litters were from none silver parents and one of those litters had silver kits!


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