How young is best to start

Hi,

I've currently got 10 babies ranging from 7 - 21 days old all with their mums and dads doing extremely well and being fed. They are in a colony environment.

I'd like to eventually select and separate one as a pet and tame him/her. When I say pet, I mean not to breed from and be my buddy in the house with me all the time.

I toyed with the idea of separating one very early (like now) to hand feed knowing the bond would be strong however never having done this before I'm reluctant when there is peace and calm among the group and everything is going well by their mums. I could kill the poor little thing not doing it right!

At what age do you think would be good to separate a youngster to begin bonding and taming? I do have hand rearing formula and am prepared in the case of an emergency but I'd feel happier once they are weaned. Would I be loosing out on better bonding opportunities waiting for them to be 6-8 weeks old as opposed to 3-4 weeks?

Also, is there anyway whatsoever to sex a baby from 4 weeks ish?

Thanks all, my first post here and looking forward to chatting with you all.

Sue. x