Ferrets are they good pets?

carzony

A mate of mine has 2 ferrets and the female has given birht to about 9 little baby's His adult ferrets seem to be great little animals. Although, the male is a bit bitey.

I might take 2 of the baby's off him in a few weeks for myself Just wanted to hear opinions on them?


My mate has his ferrets in a huge cage out his back garden with a plastic sheet covering the top of it so no rain gets in. Is that an ok setup? they seem to love it.

pointer28

Super pets, I have 6 of them.

Very intelligent, great fun and love attention. You can keep them in any kind of a large rabbit hutch or chicken coop setup. Just make sure there's no large gaps that they might squeeze through. Make sure they get out for some playtime every day though.

None of my 6 (2 males, 4 females) are any way bitey. The more you handle them the quieter they get. The usually only bite if they're scared, you're hurting them or some females can be very protective around their young.

ferretone

They do make great pets, and the above poster gave good advice, but perhaps didn't emphasise the playtime point strongly enough. I used to keep them, and in our house they were kept inside, had an entire room where they were loose all the time, yet still we used to let them run through the whole house and play with them for at least an hour a day, most days 2 hours or more.

To be honest, I'm not all that happy with the rabbit hutch setup, unless the chicken coop is as big as a room. I know lots of people keep them that way, but they never seem quite happy to me when they're cooped up, even with playtime. Outdoor setups where I've seen them really happy have been purpoe-built, and pretty massive.

As regards handling and bite-training, the reason they can be bitey is, ferret play is naturally rough. With plenty of handling, they learn that this isn't ok with tender human hands, and do become lovely, cuddly pets. They can be litter-trained too, although rarely become as reliable as cats in this regard. Enough to live indoors tho, as we had them, if you decide to go that way.

I would urge you to neuter them if you decide to get them: if you have 1 or more females, do them early, before they begin to come in season; either they will keep coming in, which leads them to develop aplastic anemia, which will kill them, or if you take a male from the same litter you will be inbreeding, and ferrets are prone to enough diseases without encouraging them so blatantly. With males, you should wait a year or so before neutering, as early neutering is linked with increased incidence of adrenal disease, which is extremely prevalent in ferrets anyway: you want to avoid this if at all possible.

This brings me to another point: don't get ferrets if you won't be able to afford expensive vet bills, especially as they get older, from around 6 years on. They are wonderful animals, but sadly prone to so many medical problems, from the aforementioned adrenal disease, to insulinoma, to lymphoma, just to name a few, none cheap to treat. They also need a good-quality, high-protein diet, and constant vigilance regarding their day-to-day health.

If you are willing to provide them all of the above, and read up lots more that you need to know to look after them properly, then you may be ready to keep these wonderful, hilarious, feisty animals as pets. In which case I wish you all the very best if you do decide to take the plunge

If they didnt smell, they would overtake cats as pets. Great pets just Stink to high heaven .

bonnie13

I agree with all that Ferretone says they do make excellent pets and they are definitely best indoors. One thing I will add is that when two ferrets play they naturally bite each other and drag each other around, so when a ferret gets excited it can nip by accident. But in general they are loving and extremely comical pets. Like all pets you get back what you put into them.
As for "stinking to high heaven"!!! if they are neutered they do not stink! Also you can now get an implant instead of neutering, talk to your vet. You can post questions and get advice here:
https://www.facebook.com/IrishFerrets?fref=ts

Neutering does lessen the smell but they still stink. If you pick them up the smell will be on your hands. If they walk on your clothes the smell will be on there.

They are Muskoids :P