Marie's Ferrets live in Sweden, and all ferrets are of Swedish origin.
I (Marie) got my first ferret, Trixie, in 1988. Ferrets quickly became a true passion of mine, and during the first year I devoured all knowledge I could find. I also got a hob, Milou, and in 1989 my first litter from the two of them was born.
Both Trixie (bred by a pet shop) and Milou (from a fur farm background) were domesticated ferrets, but happened to be what could be described as an "original/wild type", which means they were somewhat more similar to the original polecat in appearance. They had a rich, darker, reddish polecat colour and a muscular build. This sparked an interest in me, for this type of ferret, and those are among the traits I selected for during my breeding years.
I bred some of my ferrets, very small scale, in a continues line down from Trixie (outbred with one exception) from 1989 to 2010, which was the final year I had a litter. The breeding was always for myself, but since I couldn't possibly keep all kits I did sell ferrets during many of those years. I also lent out my hobs to cover other breeders jills (free of charge) on a number of occasions.
In other words, I no longer breed now, and I don't sell any ferrets.
For a long time I still had ferrets from my earlier breeding, but today I only have one left with any relation. This ferret comes from a long time breeder friend of mine, who originally founded his stock from my ferrets. He has since then bred long passed those bloodlines and introduced new ferrets. He is not a publicly available breeder, which means he doesn't sell ferrets.
I'm often asked if I can recommend breeders. I no longer can, for the most part, unless on a rare occasion. A few years after I stopped breeding I left the breeder's world entirely, and I'm not up to date on other breeder's bloodlines, health records, longevity etc.
In more recent years, I have often taken in ferrets from various people, ferrets in need of a new home. I have typically specialized in taking challenging ferrets who need something more than living in an average pet home.
They are ferrets, some of them have a bit of a hybrid background, but most don't.
My ferrets are fed an all natural diet, mainly consisting of a variety of small, whole prey animals (humanely pre-killed). I breed their food animals myself, mice, voles, Chinese painted quail, frogs, snails and certain types of fish (fish is a regular but very minor part of their diet). They also get a small supplement of 97% whey isolate, taurin, vitamins/minerals, krill oil.
The ferrets live both indoors inside the house (no cages) as well as outdoors in a couple of enclosures. The larger one is a woodland area with plants, trees, soil to dig in and a shallow pond. They have access to a small indoor area via a cat door. While I don't keep my ferrets entirely out of artificial light, I do limit the exposure and the house (particularly rooms where the ferrets spend most of their time) are only moderatly heated during winter. They also go outside regularly. That way, they live with mostly natural photoperiods and under strong influence of the natural seasons.
I don't normally castrate my ferrets, neither surgically nor chemically, unless it's necessary for some reason. The jills have typically been taken out of heat using a GnRH analouge (Receptal/buserelin), once or twice a year. I currently have only one jill, Shimra, and she is surgically castrated due to having developed an ovarian tumour. For the average pet ferret, or ferrets that are not to be bred, I would recommend using the Deslorelin implant as chemical castration.
I often get questions on how my ferrets can be so long lived. My more general answer to this is that it's because of their genetics (I'm guessing that's a big part) and husbandry practises (how I house, feed and care for them).
My first elderly ferrets reached ages around 7, then 8-10 and progressively more. Both the genetic type (as evident by phenotype in my ferrets) and my husbandry have changed some over the years.
The oldest ferret I have ever had was Larven. He was born June 16 2009, and passed away, July 6 2024 (15 years). I have also had a few other ferrets live well beyond 10.
My current ferrets, as I'm typing this on June 19 2025, are: Mandel 13 years, Benji and Nimbus 12, Shimra 8 and Theo 2 years old.
I hope this provides a little bit of insight into my ferret family!
