A Day in the Life of a Zookeeper

A Day in the Life of a Zookeeper
Ever wonder what its like to share your world with a bunch of crazy critters? Tune in to find out!

Saturday, May 04, 2013

Ear Tattoos

All my ferrets are wild children - tattooed beasts....

Most ferret farms use the tattooing as a way to show they have completed the two surgical procedures necessary for baby ferrets (kits).  Those procedures are descenting and neutering.  By law in the US ferrets have to have both completed before they can be sold.

Descenting decreases the chance for some types of cancers but descenting them doesn't really help with the odors that ferrets emit.  It does prevent what is called "poofing" where the ferret releases a musky scent when excited or scared.  Neutering actually helps more with smelly ferrets than descenting - the hormones make ferrets produce odoriferous oils - and - boy ferrets who are not fixed perform the lovely ritual of covering themselves in their own urine to be more attractive to breeding females....ewwww.

Each of my ferrets have a bit different tattoo - mostly they are two small dots - but the spots are different sizes and shapes and are on different places on their ears. 

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