Animal Care

The most important part of daily care in our opinion is the play time. We think that if we did not spend that time playing, we would be neglecting the animal. Another aspect of daily care is the feeding, and skipping a meal once a week seems to be good for mink.

You also need to check that all of the food has been eaten and not hidden: Especially on warm summer days, as you will get a lot of flies otherwise. The litter tray should be cleaned at least once a week, not because of the smell but because of the amount of waste. Mink produce a lot of urine and excrement and a 40cmx40cm litter tray is really full after a week.

A mink does notneed to have a bath like a ferret because the mink is often in the wateranyway. A mink does not need to have a bath because the mink is often in the water anyway. Mink are strong and are not prone to illnesses (probably because they have not been bred senseless like domesticated animals), however we do recommend that you check with the breeder that the parents are not related. Often the just breed for colour and then they don’t take the parents bloodline into consideration. Now that there are mor and more private owners the animals are becoming more prone to such illnesses, maybe do to inbreeding? For example, a healthy mink drops down dead (after closer investigation) of a heart attack. And it seems that other enthousiasts suddenly have animals die on them although the animals seemed in perfect health. We recently had someone come to use with their mink that had suddenly become lame and it died three days later. The cause is still unknown. Little is known at the moment about unusual mink illnesses because most do not reach the age of two. Apart from Aleutian disease, acute pneumonia (pseudomas), botulism and distemper. These are the known illnesses that the farms can come up against and the animals can be vaccinated against them. So for mink owners, we recommend annual vaccinations. A cocktail against botulism type C, pneumonia (pseudomas), and serotypes 5-6-7; and against mink distemper too. The most dangerous illness a mink can get is Aleutian disease and there is no vaccination for it. It is a real mink disease. It is contagious and terminal. Normally mink owners do not have to worry about this illness as long as we are certain that we get our mink from a farm that is free of this disease and make sure that we do not go near a farm that is contaminated.

We have had our mink vaccinated for illnesses that cats and dogs can get and that is definitely necessary if you are going to walk with your mink. A good vet who has knowledge of exotic mammals is hard to find. We use Dr. Klaver for all of our animals; our mink, skunk, prairie dogs and our raccoon. This vet has a lot of experience in this area. He works in the whole country and can carry out operations on site. If you would like more information, please contact:klaver4dieren@zonnet.nl.