# Umm, ferrets



## MimiSkye (Feb 3, 2014)

I have always thought ferrets were adorable, but yesterday me and my friend stopped by a small pet store in CT and I was able to play with them for the first time.

I'm obsessed.

Maybe it was just these 3 guys that were super friendly, but they were the sweetest things I've ever seen. The biggest one was begging to be handled, and when you picked him up he just melted. He flopped around and was like a little rag doll. The 2 young ones were a little more feisty but still enjoyed being held.

Is this normal for ferrets? Are a lot of them that friendly, or were these ones just extra sweet. Because if ferrets are generally that sweet, I am defiitely going to get them someday. They stink, but they are just too adorable.

Any ferret owners experience? I'd love to hear a bit about them. Pros/cons?


----------



## Mrs.Brisby (Jan 4, 2014)

How old were the ferrets? In my experience, the really young ones are super energetic and don't like being held much. I had one ferret named Mishka who would always attack my brother's feet. It was hilarious. When they get super excited they jump all over the place and run into walls. They also love to stash things. One of my ferrets had a lovely collection of 15 spoons that she had hid under my dresser. The only con for me is that I couldn't put toys or anything fun in their cage because Mishka always tried to eat them. They live much longer than rats and are just as much fun!


----------



## PaigeRose (Apr 12, 2013)

My aunt used to have ferrets, she had 7 at the most and I think is now down to 1 or 2... my sister, cousins, and I used to love playing with them. They were so funny! We dressed them up, made little obstacle courses, played house, everything. I've never been bitten but they do have minds of their own and can be independent but just like rats, they have their own personalities. My aunt had a male who was super cuddly and sweet and just a mush and his name was Chunky Monkey. :lol:

The only negative I found was that they do smell pretty bad. My aunt lived in a small 1 bedroom duplex at the time and although she cleaned their cage pretty much every day and they were completely litter trained, I still always came home reeking of ferret.


----------



## thenightgoddess (Apr 2, 2014)

I have a ferret we adopted him from my husbands coworker that didn't want him anymore he is sweet and funny. If you want to learn more about ferrets you should join the holistic ferret forum. They should really eat a diet of raw meat because kibble has to much stuff in it that they shouldn't have and can cause some very expensive and possible life threatening diseases. I am in the process of switching mister over the forum I mentioned above has a mentoring program where you will be paired with someone that is knowledgeable about switching and they will help you through the whole switch from kibble to raw. Also once they are switched to raw and go threw detox they will smell a lot less.


----------



## MimiSkye (Feb 3, 2014)

Thats awesome! I'm not sure how old these ones were. I know the bigger one was just labelled "large ferret" and the two younger ones were labelled as babies. They were definitely more energetic. When I went to pet them they rolled over and were nibbling on my fingers in a playful way. When I picked them up they kinda looked annoyed like "hey put me down!" but they just went limp and wiggly and let me give em hugs. They were all so sweet, but the big one was definitely the most loving. Whenever I put him down he kept jumping up trying to make me pick him up again. And whenever I'd pick him up he just completely relaxed and let me hold him like a baby. It was like ALL he wanted was to be held and loved. I felt so bad leaving him.

I always just assumed they were kinda like bunnies or something...cute and nice, but not very snuggly. But these guys were just sooooo sweet it was so hard to leave them. They did stink pretty bad. I smelt it on my shirt the whole way home. But if they are that sweet, I could definitely get over the smell.

Is it better to have two, like rats? Or do they do fine on their own? I think I would want two anyway.


----------



## thenightgoddess (Apr 2, 2014)

It is better to have two they are very social like rats we only have one because that is what they had but I do want to eventually get another(which is probably not going to happen as my husband is not ok with it).


----------



## QueenB1958 (Apr 27, 2014)

I used to have ferrets and they were both like that. They loved to play and we used to take them outside and they would come when we would call them so we didn't even need to use leashes.


----------



## BlackBirdSeesYou (Nov 4, 2012)

I have two ferrets and guy and a girl. And in my opinion the babies are more sleepy, my guys would always fall asleep in my arms it was so cute and nothing could wake them up. Now at about a year both don't sit still. They are very sweet creatures and my favorite thing about them is that they're never mad they're always happy go lucky running around.


Sent from Petguide.com Free App


----------



## Zoey339 (May 26, 2014)

i had ferrets for 6 years, 4 of them. They are all super friendly. Even the one I had that that was abused and was very aggressive was still friendly. I am a walking encyclopedia on ferrets if you need to know anything.
What smells so bad on ferrets? Its actually the oil in their skin. The more you wash them the worse it gets as the body will replace the oil. Similar to rats if you use a cloth bedding like fleece or old shirts and replace and clean the cage weekly they do not smell much at all. 
I miss my ferrets so much at times. They had free roam of the apartment at least 12 hours a day, came when called, did tricks, would go running to door when my ex-husband came home. My first ferret when use to sleep with me in bed. Two of my ferrets had different opinions on were a jingle ball was to be stashed and I would watch them chase each other with the ball back and forth for hours. Them stealing stuff wasn't really a big deal, I knew where they kept everything so it was just a matter of taking it back. The big problem was closing doors. They did not like that at all. We actually had a rule, no shutting doors with ferrets presents. They would flip out trying to get in the room digging at the carpet and my male would literally trying to rip the door off with his teeth resulting in chunks of door missing. 
Males get the be twice the size of females. If they are not neutered until they hit puberty they can actually get twice as big as that. Same with female they will get twice as big as an altered female if you allow them to grow up first. The average life span of a ferret is 6 years, however this is due to a high high rate of cancer and improper care. Old age for a ferret in the US is 8 to 10years, in Europe it is 10 to 12 years. European ferrets do not get cancer at the same rate as US ferrets. Unfortunately I did not get to see 3 of my 4 pass 3 years of age. Long depressing story because one was killed, two were given away due to personal reasons and for their own mental health, I kept my original ferret which developed cancer 4 different times requiring 3 different surgeries. The last was a high risk surgery which had appeared to go great but she died from complications 2 days later. As of when I owned ferret 5 years ago the cause of the high rate of cancer seemed to be linked to altering the ferrets way too young (they do it was about 3 weeks of age) and feeding them an improper diet. Though ferrets have been domesticated longer than the housecat they have only been fed a commercial diet for a short time. They are very strict carnivores and can not digest plant matter. my suggestion is if you want a ferret find a breeder and research food heavily. 
Interesting tid bits 
Female ferrets in heat will not come out of heat until breed or human invention with drugs, staying in heat for an extended period of time will kill them. 
They bond very closely with their people and cagemates. Its recommended to get one or three as if you get two and one dies the remaining ferret may grieve itself to death. 
They also can be very picky about their food. Its recommended to mix foods as if the food you are using is discontinued they may starve themselves to death before trying something new. 
Ferrets are the only animals that can get the human flu, they are also the animals tested on to create flu shots.
They require yearly shots like a cat or dog. 
Require 4 hours of free range time a day and they sleep ALOT. 
They will eat rats, birds, mouse, rabbits, mine loved crickets. I also had my bird killed by one through the bars of the ferret cage. 
As I said I know way too much about them, any questions let me know


----------



## Charlottesmom (Nov 27, 2013)

We had two ferrets way back when they were still illegal in MA (about 20 years ago!). I also worked at a pet shop that sold ferrets and talked more people OUT of getting them than into getting them. My suggestion to you would be Read everything you can get your hands on about ferrets. Yes they are totally flipping cute and Highly amusing, but they do have their downsides. They are best kept in pairs (at least), they are stinky (but Odor B Gone is great for that....additive you put in their water), they are expensive, you are looking at at the very least $400-$600 for a one to two ferret set up. They poo in a couple select corners in your house/room which is good as they are fairly easily litter trained but may still have the occasional accident. They are little kleptos!!! When we were moving to our new apaprtment we were taking apart our waterbed that had a 2 foot channel of storage space under it and found Toby and Becca's entire stash of stuffed animals, pizza crusts, toilet paper rolls, a long lost sneaker, and loads of socks!!!! All in all I highly reccomend them but look into a rescue if possible, there are tons if "impulse buy" ferrets out there that people just couldn't deal with because they didn't do their reading first and know exactly what they were getting into. Oh and another thing, Ferrets can NOT interact with rats, birds or bunnies! We decided on Stewie our Flemish Giant bunny instead of another ferret or two when we were looking for another fuzzy family member....I didn't want a ferret to get at my Kellie (African Grey Parrot) as she is out of her cage all day, our two new rats will be in another room so they will be okay and rats are less of a threat to a big bird (they will never come in contact with each other).I wish you luck with your decision but go in educated as a ferret can live from 6-8 years! :0)


----------

