Ferrets!

[Goat Whisperer]

So I took some pictures of my ferrets doing what ferrets do... here they are!

Fatty Fats is the brownish one and Sweety Peady is the white one:

Fatty climbs up my legs




Sweety steals a slipper




Fatty gets scared



Sweety stares...



The viscous battle!



Cuties together

 

[Doveshit]

Cute critters

 

[Ashl33]

omg
they are soo cute!
i always despised ferrets...until now !

 

[Goat Whisperer]

lol here they are sleeping! God I love them

 

[AnitaBeer]

They are cute...for the rodents they are lol.
I'm not a fan of them but everyone is different.
I think they STINK lol.

 

[sierrabravo]

granted they are cute, but idk... how clean are they? are they well behaved?

 

[Goat Whisperer]

lol NO! If you don't have patience do NOT get ferrets. They are fun to play with and great companions, but they aren't like dogs, they dont look for affection. They give affection, but they don't try and get it from you. So if you praise them for going in the litter box-- they don't care. And if you yell at them for digging at the door, they will usually keep doing it. They are extremly stubborn, no matter how many times I yell at my ferret and pull it away from whatever it is doing, it will continue to do it tell it's curiosity is suppressed. But, if your ferret likes treats they can be really easy to train.

Fatty Fats, is smart, and he likes treats. If I yell at him, he will stop and I will give him a treat. Sometimes he has even pretended to do something just so he can get a treat for stopping, like pooping on the carpet instead of the litter box. He has pretneded to start pooping, then I say "Fatty" in an angry tone and he will walk over to the litter box and pretend to go poop in it. Then I give him a treat. Lol super smart animals!

Sweety, however, always has to be punished because she doesn't like any thing either then her food and for some reason june beetles. Since I usually don't have a supply of June Beetles I usually have to scruff her, yell at her, and put her in time out...

Yes they make fantastic pets with great personalities, but are in no way easy to care for, they eat about 15$ a food a month each. And that creates a lot of poop. I have to clean it up every day--and no it doesn't smell, unless if I don't clean it up everyday. I have to clip their nails (because they can get caught on towels, and scratch pretty hard) , I have to clean their ears, and I have to play with them at least once a day. Otherwise they become bored and sad . But I have trained them to walk on leashes, and it's fun to take them on walks during the summer. And you haven't laughed to you've laughed at a ferret!

My favorite story is when I was walking Fatty, and we wondered into this really open grassy area, in the wild rodents don't go out into the open because they can get killed by things like owls really easily, well he FREAKED out, ran up my leg, and hid under my hair. lol he wouldn't come out until we were safe inside my house again...

 

[Ashl33]

do u need two or can you get just one ?
i want one !

 

[Goat Whisperer]

I would definitely go for one. A lot of ferret lovers say that you should get more because then they won't be bored in their cage or ever feel 'alone'. But I used to have just one ferret, and it was a lot more fun. Because the ferret felt more like a human, a human baby She would fall asleep in my arms and just chill super easy... She was much easier to train and actually seemed to strive for my affection. I had had her since she was littler so she really felt like a human just smaller. Plus, since she was easier to train I just let her run free in my room and she would use the litter box. Every day I would come home call her name and her head would pop out of a sock drawer... Then I would take her for a walk around the park or just let her sit in my lap while I watched tv, did homework, or read a book. She was like a cat, that stayed as playful as a kitten forever, just more well trained and a lot cuter!

I love my two ferrets that I have now, but i really miss little miss... If you want more love, easier training, and more fun go with one. But, I must warn you will get attached and losing them... it isn't easy

 

[Goat Whisperer]

If your seriosly into buying one, I can make some suggestions:

1. Get it from a private breeder

Ones from Petco tend to have more biting problems and can have a lot of diseases from inbreeding, the safer choice is a breeder

2. Cage

An easy to clean cage is DEFINITELY preferred. Don't go with a cheap one--cuz you will end up buying another easier to use one. Ferret Nation is by far the best cage in the history of ferret cages. You can lock the ferret(s) in one half of the cage while you clean the other, pull out the entire bottoms to really clean them, without having to move the entire cage outside and take the entire thing apart, and it is spacious, comfy, and looks nice.

3. Accessories

A must is a hammock, ferrets LOVE to sleep in hammocks. A good way to train a ferret, is to section of areas, make one are a play/sleep area by putting toys, tubes, towels, and hammocks their; make one area an eating and drinking area (smaller the better for this one), and one area a 'litter' area, as it is much easier to clean one part of the cage then the entire thing if your ferrets refuse to use a litter box.

4. Food

Food is an essential in ferrets, different food can change the way their poop smells. I use Totally Ferret, it is a little bit more expensive then the regular, but worth it. Because first off, the better quality the food the slower it will take for their metabolism to burn it and the smaller amount of it they will eat, so really it pays for it's self as you don't have to buy it as often. Secondly, the smell. Ferret poop does stink, even when you clean it up once a day. I suggest getting a LitterTrap garbage to put their poop in every day, and then high quality food to keep the odor down. Really it only smells in a one foot radius of their cage, so if you put in the corner by a window it will probably not smell to bad or it will go unnoticed.

You have to make sure they have food at all times, they are small and can't go without food like we can. They need to eat at least once every four to eight hours if not more often.

5. Basic care

Trimming their nails weekly chore. And cleaning their ears and teeth once every 2-4 weeks is also one. Yearly check ups and shots at the vet are also needed. And they must be spayed and neutered. Males are more aggressive when not castrated and females will die if they are not mated once a year or given a special shot. It isn't worth it to not fix them if you think you might want to mate them in the future. It will effect their temperament and it is dangerous; if your not a breeder, don't breed.

So those are the basics, if you decide to get one i can tell you more...