Which sex of ferret should I buy?

A:

Male ferrets (hobs) and females (jills) work in different styles.

Hobs tend to be methodical and almost plod through a warren, whereas jills are usually faster and will scoot along the tunnels.

Both have their advantages and disadvantages.

Jills tend to miss rabbits in their haste, while hobs are sometimes too slow to bolt rabbits, giving them time to avoid their pursuer.

I always work one hob with two or three jills and find this combination works very well.

Both hobs and jills, if bred and raised correctly (the parents selected for their good temperament, the kits handled daily from when they are four weeks or so old) will be easygoing, but beware of buying a ferret that is too feisty, as such an animal can sometimes be simply too hot for a novice ferreter to handle correctly.

In addition, try to avoid adult ferrets that are being sold as ‘perfect and great rabbiters’ – if they are so perfect, then why are they being put up for sale?

About the author

Simon Whitehead

A Suffolk-based professional ferreter and rabbit controller, author and Shooting Times contributor, Simon is known widely as The Ferret Man and acknowledged as the last full-time warrener operating in Britain. Born in Middlesbrough in 1968, he moved with his parents to Suffolk in 1984 after the collapse of Cleveland's steel industry, and turned a boyhood fascination into a business in 2001, demonstrating ferreting at country shows nationwide through the summer and controlling rabbits in rural and urban East Anglia through the winter. Simon has become ferreting's premier demonstrator in the UK, sits on the Shooting Times expert panel and writes regularly for the magazine. He is the author of four books, including Ferreting: An Essential Guide, published by Crowood, and Ahead of the Game, celebrating wild rabbit as food, and has appeared in television programmes on rabbit management.

More from Simon Whitehead