Complete Guide to Ferrets

by James Mckay

[nannah]

This has been, by far, the most interesting ferret book I’ve read yet. The title is a bit misleading; instead of New Complete Guide to Ferrets it should probably be something like New Complete Guide to Working Ferrets.

I got really excited when I saw this in my library and checked it out without really looking at it (I didn’t think we’d have any ferret books at all). It’s also a great size! Most ferret books are nearly the size of brochures, which is massively disappointing. But if I had looked closer, I would have seen that this was written in the UK and therefore focused on things that weren’t really relevant to me or my ferrets here in the US.

From what I gather, James McKay seems like a big name in the UK, and with good reason: he’s been working with ferrets for decades and reads as being extremely knowledgeable about many things related to ferreting, breeding ferrets, racing ferrets, and taking care of ferrets outdoors. He’s also written many books about them as well as other rabbit-hunting sports such as falconry. For this reason I give him a lot of respect.

But wow, he really definitely knows he’s all that. There’s no part of this book where he doesn’t make sure you know he’s present and that he's the one telling you information. It almost reads more like a series of educational blog posts rather than as a nonfiction book, if that makes sense. “This product works best because I have had success with it. [...] I like to do this, so you should do it, too. [...] Not doing or thinking [any such thing] would be sheer stupidity in my opinion.”

So when I say ferret-related issues in the UK are different from the US, I mean things like work, housing, breeding, and health. Written out, it does sound like a lot, I guess! However, because so many things are US-centric, I’m glad there’s such a good resource for UK-based ferret owners (and probably other parts of Europe as well).

Work:
Much, and I mean much of this book is dedicated to ferreting, the practice of flushing rabbits out of their burrows with ferrets. Whether it be the how-tos, equipment (even the details of what rope is best for nets), safe practices, etc., I think maybe a third or fourth of the book is on ferreting. And this doesn’t even count pages of ferreting information in other sections (breeding, health, etc.).

Ferreting is illegal in the US (it has been since 1935 if I’m thinking correctly; I may be wrong on this one) as well as in many other countries. Because I have no knowledge or experience in this area, I’m just going to assume he knows what he’s talking about. He certainly seems to.

Housing:
Because the author keeps most of his ferrets outside, that’s unfortunately the only information he provides about housing. He acknowledges other people who keep ferrets “as pets” often keep them indoors, but that’s where it ends. One paragraph. Instead of being a well-rounded “complete guide,” the book comes off as being very limited.

Breeding:
This section had me … concerned. Sometimes his thinking regarding breeding was … interesting, to say the least.

The author goes to great lengths to recommend and defend inbreeding, even adding a detailed section on genetics. In a regular ferret guidebook this seems … wild to me. A breeder needs to be extremely knowledgeable about breeding their animals before they even consider inbreeding, because of, obviously, all the problems involved (take a look at the pandas’ poor fertility rate, the health issues many purebred dogs have -- and even wolves have problems relating to inbreeding, to give a few examples). A simple genetics lesson isn’t going to cut it.

He also listed the best reason to breed was to create The Perfect Ferret, which is a little intense. I guess I appreciate that he does want to put the health of the ferrets first, but then he talks about “destroying” ferrets with health problems, which seems beyond cruel (and yes, that’s the word he uses).

Health:
This is by far the biggest section I wish was expanded more. And given care to provide information for ferrets in other countries. When the author describes ferrets as being “very healthy” I think I had to just stare at the page for a couple of minutes. I mean, I do know the situation in Europe and even Australia is much different than in the US, but it took me by surprise. Especially given that he didn’t mention the problems America has with the Marshall mill and how it almost shortens the lifespans of ferrets by half -- and worse, that even vets and most people don’t even know Marshall is why or that other countries don’t have that problem.

A lot of health issues ferrets in America get weren’t mentioned, for the above reason. It’s wild to me that ferrets in Europe (and perhaps Australia) don’t even get insulinoma enough to have a mention in this section, when in America it’s their biggest killer. The author also failed to mention adrenal disease, and said the reason for its biggest symptom, hair loss on the tail, was unknown. The edition of this book was published in 2017, so … perhaps (?) information regarding adrenal disease has just been updated since then. I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt there.

The diet section also made me grimace. Though in general, most ferret books’ diet sections … aren’t that great. At least this one acknowledged ferrets as being obligate carnivores that can’t digest plant material! And also the option of feeding ferrets raw meat/carcasses! But then he goes on to say “well the United States is creating complete ferret food (kibble) with great success,” and I immediately wanted to scream. Apparently the author was given free kibble from a pet food company in the UK who created the first complete diet in the country -- and now that’s all the author feeds his ferrets. It just feels like an ad. We know kibble isn’t good for ferrets. It causes a greater risk for choking, is terrible for their teeth, and provides subpar nutrition. Taking the United States as an example is a terrible idea, because awful kibbles touted as complete and wonderful ferret food is one of our biggest problems for ferret health here.

(The author also gave the ferrets’ stool as a reason why the kibble was good [under a spoiler if you want to avoid this I guess]: solid black. That’s usually a worrying sign of blood in the stool? )

Other:
This is a good guide to have, I think, if you plan to work your ferrets in the UK or Europe -- or any place where ferreting is legal. If you plan to own ferrets as pets (or even indoors), this guide probably won’t be relevant for you. And if you live in the US, it definitely won’t be.