Anyone own a ferret??

[Chicks_N_Horses]

I have a pic of him now. I took like 10 before I could get him to be still enough to get his whole body in one shot.

 

[Barnyard]

Oh my goodness...... that is a cuteness over load!! Ferret's are a hoot. My best friend owns one and she is like haveing a toddler around..... Swiper get's into everything. I am sure you will get alote of good information on here. Goodluck with your new baby!!

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

Oh, he's a cutie pie!
I may qualify as the crazy ferret lady on here. Over the years I have had 9. The most I had at one time was five. We are now down to just two.

Quick thoughts- what you feed is very important. You say he still smells. That is likely because of the food. Low quality ferret food makes them really stinky. Marshall Farms brand makes them REALLY stinky for some reason. Phew! I feed mine a combination of Totally Ferret and Iams kitten food (the purple bag). I order the ferret food from Jeffers online, but you can usually find it at local pet stores. I can get Iams at my grocery store. The benefit of the two foods is that there is always a food available that they will eat. Ferrets can get very particular about what they want to eat. If it doesn't meet their taste, they simply won't eat. Finkicky little suckers!

Mine have always done very well on the mix of food.

Bathing him will, oddly enough, make him stinkier. The more you bath him the more he will secrete body oil, thus the smellier he will get. I used to bath mine once ever few months or whenever company was coming over. The current two very seldom get baths. Their smell has sort of balanced out. They still smell like ferrets, but I like that particular smell.

I know your husband is hesitant, but they really do much better with a friend. It will be a lot less work for you in the long run. They will entertain each other and keep you in stitches as they frolic.

Gotta run now (off to Mom'd for Mother's Day). PM me if you have any questions. I've been a proud ferret mom for almost 20 years now.

 

[bantamsrus]

Congrats on your first ferret!! I have 5, all from the shelter. I'm a veterinary tech--so I urge you to get a relationship with a veterinarian who knows something about ferrets about ferrets. Although these cuddly fluff balls are a bundle of fun--they also come with a host of disease problems due to inbreeding and early spay/neutering. Here's a good website with more info than you than ever wanted to know about ferrets.

http://www.ferretuniverse.com/


For those of you that have mentioned "descenting"--this surgical process only removed the picky glands (same as your dog/cat has)--it does nothing to reduce the smell that the ferret produces from the rest of the glands in its body (lots). Yes, feeding different food can make it smell worse (ever eat garlic and smell it on your hands the next day?) and bathing will make it produce more oil to replenish the oil on its coat (therefore making it "smell" more after a bath). One of the best ways I've found to reduce the smell of my ferret clan is to keep the bedding and cage clean. I change the bedding every couple days--and add bleach when washing. I change the litter pans (4 of them) every day. The cage gets a comple was down every week with a antimicrobial solution.

Again, congrats on the ferret and good luck!!

 

[Chicks_N_Horses]

The food I bought from him I got at WalMart, it was the only ferret food they had. I do buy lots from Jeffers so I will look into that.

I was just going to get the kids to bathe him but now I guess I won't.

I will check out that web-site too.

I noticed he does appear to have 2 ink tatoo spots on his ear. They are just dots but two. It doesn't appear to be a natural thing. Were those the tatoos that were mentioned?

LOL My husband just saw the pic I took of him on the bar! Ooops! LOL He is spraying the kitchen down with Lysol now! I told him I wiped it down and cleaned it after I had put him there....He just looked at me like

The kids are home and they are in love with it. Fighting over him already.

 

[bantamsrus]

The two tatoos in his ear means he's from Marshall Farm--the biggest ferret breeder in the US. One dot means he's "descented" the other means he is spayed/neutered. They do this to all their ferrets before they are shipped to wholesalers/petstores for medical reasons for several reasons. Yes, there's downfalls to the early spay/neuter but there are also downfalls to not making sure ferrets get spay/neuterd before they become reproductively mature.


You can bathe him--I just wouldn't do it more than every 3 months. (Or unless he gets into something really icky--caution, they really like to dig in potted plants, especially right after you water them

)

 

[ZooMummzy]

Congrats! We have 4 ferrets right now. We had two others but they died of cancer. Wonderful pets and so much fun.

 

[Mrs. Glassman]

I have 2 ferrets. The first one I was lucky enough to get free--cages & all from a lady who inherited them. I bought the 2nd to be company for the first. They are way cute & funny to watch.

I take my cage apart and run all the platforms & tubes through the dishwasher with bleach every 2 weeks. That helps cut down on the smell.

I'm afraid to let them roam the house unsupervised. But I do take them out and let them play on the couch. They love to hide behind pillows and dart out at you, then run & hide again.

Both have the two tattoos on the ear. I had to Google it to see what it was for.

I have NO IDEA how to sex them.

Oh...a good trick I found on keeping them still to trim the nails is to put some Nutri-Cal on their belly. They love the stuff so much that nothing else exists to them while they have some!

 

[bantamsrus]

Sexing:

They're like dogs--males have an penis underneath, females have a vulva in the back underneath the anus (two holes).

 

[Dar]

Quote:
so maybe thats what happened to all my odd socks...my lil guy bear stole them.... shhhhh! dont tell the kids cause i have been givin the kids trouble for loosin their socks