Crazy Brenna

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I'm not sure exactly where she was going or why the sudden interest in the bed, which stays under my computer for Duncan to sleep in when he feels like it (he hasn't done that in a while). She was quite persistant, I took it away from her several times but she would always start dragging it again. She dragged it out of the office, down the hall around the corner, down the stairs and around the corner where she got stuck between the garbage can and the leg. Crazy Ferrets!

I was smiling at these shots......she was on a mission alright....

haha.......ferrets are cool :)

How hard is it "maintain" a ferret?
I've always wanted a ferret or a racoon but I've heard that racoons are pretty hard to take care off.

But then again, I think I would kill my pets by not feeding them or forgeting about them. Maybe I should just get a virtual pet insted ;)

How hard is it "maintain" a ferret?

You'll be sorry you asked that question....

Well if you don't have any free time then they probably aren't the best pet, get a fish or something. I like to think of them as half way between a dog and a cat but smarter. If you are extremely messy or very neat they are probably not he best pet either.

My wife and I have two now. We let them up in the morning when we get up and they roam around pretty unsupervised until we go to work and then they go back into the cage until we get home and they are let up again until we go to bed. They sleep all day and all night (approx 18-20 hours a day) so they don't mind being in the cage that much. I we leave the house for more than about 1/2 hour we put them back in the cage for their own safety. I play hide and seek and wrestle with them for about an hour or so a day, now we have two they play with each other a lot.

They can get into just about anything so you have to be careful what you leave and where. Duncan like anything with Velcro, chocolate, fruits, nuts, cereal (especially cheerios) among other things. Brenna mainly goes for anything plastic, from the plastic that wraps toilet paper rolls to shopping bags to Ziploc bags. Duncan can open floor to ceiling sliding closet doors and Brenna can fit though a hole only an inch of so wide. Duncan can climb onto office chairs and dining room chairs and from there onto desks and tables. They can both climb onto living room furniture and jump onto coffee and side tables from there. Duncan can get a box of cereal out of a lower cupboard and have the box open and plastic bag open in about 10-15 seconds; this includes identifying which box has the cereal he wants.

So we move any shoes with Velcro off the floor onto shelves and any clothes with Velcro can't be left on the floor. Can't leave anything yummy on tables or desks. Luckily our kitchen counter is high enough and isolated enough that they can't get onto it, unless we leave a chair pushed out from the dining room table and then Duncan can balance on the back of it and leap onto the counter.

As far as actual care we clean the cage litter every night and the out of cage litters when they need it. Fresh water and food top up every night. Baths about once a month, any more and they smell "worse" and can develop skin problems. They get a vitamin supplement mixed in with their water to help keep their coat shiny. The cage get cleaned every week and takes about 5 minutes, mainly just food they have knocked out of the food bowl or litter from the litter box both of which they like to dig in when they are mad (if you don't let them out soon enough of if they don't want to be in the cage).

They really don't smell any more than a dog smells like a dog and a cat smells like a cat... they have their own smell which neither my wife nor I mind.
(I think most of the bad smell thing comes from not cleaning out the litter enough)

They should go to the vet about once a year for a checkup and shot if they need one. When you get one it should be spayed or neutered and descented already (they have scent glands like their skunk, otter and wolverine kin).

They don't bite, at least ours don't. They will nip when playing but it is only a friendly thing. Brenna likes to nip socked feet (especially steeldolphins) fairly hard but seems to be growing out of that activity.

Ferrets are really fun to have though. Both of ours go down and wake up my wife in the morning after I let them up. They jump onto the bed and Brenna will nuzzle her hair and Duncan will burrow under the covers and lick and scratch her feet until she wakes up.

The other thing I get asked is do they make a noise and the answer is yes. They make a dooking sound which sort of sounds like a chicken clucking (not a rooster). The actual sound varies by ferret and they can alter the pitch to talk to each other. They usually only do it when they are happy or excited though. Duncan didn’t do it much when we had him by himself but now that we have Brenna he is a lot more vocal even when playing by himself. They also make a squeeking sound sort of like an eeek. They don't do this very often and I'm not sure what it mean, I think it is a combination of surprise and extreme excitedness. Of and Duncan also make a sort of hoarse laughing sound sort of like a coyote or a cat with a dry mouth coughing up a hair ball.

Our ferrets are both from Marshall Pets (New York) which is the largest breeder of ferrets for pets and would most likely what you would find in your local pet store.

Those are cute shots, looks like she is recovered from that leg thing. :)

Thanks freackyclean, I'll keep all this in mind :)

hahahahha...

our puppy does that with his bed. he has only slept in it 1 time since we bought it.

This happened to our dog aswell dub, used it once and now one of our cats use's the big basket......

I guess all kinds of animals do that. All our pets we've had up the years has done that too hehe. Hilarious to watch. :P