Ferrets

[Gibbo]

Has anyone kept Ferrets/Polecats? What sort of a home (hutch?) is required for them?

 

[StiX]

I have never kept one myself, but i do like them!

From what i know/read, they can get pretty smelly! U can keep them in a hutch yes, either indoors or out, they need quite a large hutch tho.

I think theyr lovely and cute! lol

 

[William]

I've seen them, they live in like rabbit hutches . Quite clean and unsmelly if you clean them out properly

 

[slt]

i'll ask my brothers about this one they both keep ferrets ,

 

[Chaylin]

I currently have a female ferret named Farrah. I keep her inside in a big ferret cage. If you go to somewhere like Pet Co. or Pets Mart they have Ferret cages there. Ferrets DO smell if you don't get there glands taken out. If you do get them taken out, then they don't smell as bad. They are able to be litter box trained and they need a litter box that has a high back. You should change it everyday or so. When it starts to get a bit full then you should change it. What you don't want to do if give them a bath every day. It will wash out their skin oils or somthing like that(I can't quite remember but I know it has somthing to do w/ the skin). You can give them a back like once every week or later. Female ferrets are alot smaller than male ferrets. Males also smell alot worse than females do. With females though, you MUST spay them or they WILL die if they don't have a male to breed with. If you get a marshall ferret baby, they will most likely already be spayed and descented. My ferret is a marshall ferret and she is already spayed and descented and had a temp. vaccine till she could go and get her regular ones. Also, just because I'm saying all that stuff up there about ferrets doesn't mean they are bad. That's just some stuff that you need to do in order to keep your ferret happy and healthy Ferrets are actually VERY funny animals and are GREAT to have around! They LOVE to play and will even cuddle with you. OH! One more thing, they make special ferret food for them and thats what you feed them. I feed mine the Marshall Premium Ferret Diet and she loves it. If you have any questions about them, let me know and i'll do my best to answer them!!!

~Love,
Chelsea

 

[Gibbo]

Cheers for advice.. Me and my partner, whilst searching for a house earlier on in the year, went to look at a house that kept them. She fell in love with them and we've been interested ever since! Thanx again. Will be in touch if we need more advice..

 

[Calusa]

I personally do not like ferrets... they smell and they're wicked. Theres a case in the states of a ferret killing an infant before. If you get one, I recommend frequent and constant socialization.

 

[Cayote]

Well I keep 11 ferrets 4 of which are polecats they live in a hutch like enclosure about 5ft by 4ft 4ft high during the winter with a hinged door across the front, lots of different levels to play on. I cannot stress the need to keep them occupied. The bordom of these animals is very low, hence they are so mischivious ( probably spelt wrong ) but are greate pets. They like digging through soiled plants especially Mishca and Oscar. In the summer when my cars out and about they go into a garage which is like a barn conversion for them, i put in tunnels and hides in the middle and just have a seperating fence about 3ft high so they cant get out and they preffer this but only in the warm months. They will and do smell esspecially in the hounse, i keep then on wood shavings cleaned out daily which keeps the smell down ( get the rose scented type, it help no end ) but if you get the males snipped this helps the smell or have the scent glands removed if not god help you when they want to get it on with the ladies they reek !

 

[Cayote]

However a post above says you need to get the females spayed if not they die if not bread........bollocks all my females that have never bread nor are going to have ever died, the only problem we had once was we lost a female through bllod poisioning in pregnancy

 

[kittyuk]

When I had a ferret thirty odd years ago, I was told that if they bite, their teeth go down to the bone and they won't let go, so put their head and whatever they've clamped on into water and they'll come up for air!
Mine only bit me once, when I first got her, and it was only a little nip.
She lived in a hutch outside.

 

[Cayote]

I have helped some people with this problem where i live

There are many reasons possible the people i have seen bite because of time spent with them when they were young.

There maybe other reasons like jealousy for example

But the same applies whatever the cause :

The way to ensure when this doesn`t happen is when small they will start running over to you and nipping

When they get too hard ( they work there way up when there young )

Tap flick gently on there noses and it startles them

They soon learn ( 2 to 3 experiances per ferret ) that they only bite so hard and thats it programmed for life.

If they are left for long periods and get bored eg. for weeks on end they will nipp harder and harder again. This is it fighting for attention, like a cry out.

More attention and repeating the process will then work, but they should never be left only to be cleaned and fed that long,

The problem normally arieses when they are sold as pets when older because they are older and have not been stopped from doing it they will be harder to get them out of it.

I have 11 of them and not 1 bites ever except, playing the process was very sucessfull.

Another tip to get them off is viniger. Put bottle near nose and before you get close its off they hate the smell that bad