The Ferret is a companion animal. Put a number Ferrets together and they will start to play, one will tow the other around by the scruff of the neck over the ground, they bite and spin round each other, run after each other, Jump, spin, dook and at the end will fall asleep closely together. On national animal day in a garden center about a dozen ferrets were together in a "playground" whish is large wooden playpen in whish they can run around and play. At the end of the day, whish was very weary, They were taken out of the pen several times and proudly shown to the surprised public, the entire bunch was sleeping close together, Ever seen a pile of Ferrets? This is so great. These Ferrets hardly knew each other, yet they cuddled closely on and under each other about 15 Ferrets on each other, marvelous.
That's why a ferret come to You, to cuddle,
Play with You they need attention. That is why it is so much wiser to take at least
two Ferrets, You can not play a substitute Ferret al day long. A Ferret needs
companion and space to live it out. This means that
the Ferret needs to get out of his cage at least a couple of hours per day,
to play and search the area. The never will be tired of that, always crawling behind, under and in things. The door opens, they run, because
they want to know what's going on!. A Ferret is playful and remain that almost their entire life, an ideal pet!!
Biting
A well raised Ferret is reliable, it will not bite. The Animal Protection
claims something else, They even want to forbid The Ferret as a Pet! The Ferret
IS a pet and nothing else, Inside the house is the only place where
this animal can survive. A Ferret can become a good playmates for children,
Provided that the keep in mind a number of rules. But a Cat also bite's when they are
handled to Roughly. Grietje is the one who could bite,
She sometimes likes to take a bite. That is a little nibble, she will not pierce trough the flesh, but you startle and pull Your hand back
and than You will feel those sharp teeth. Grietje only was curious, The Animal Protection shouts murder. Yet I am not afraid to show Grietje
to total strangers and let her be petted by children, You only have to stay with her.
Ferrets learn quickly, A Ferret who bites can be
punished by a soft tap
against the side of the nose and a severe "NO". They will learn very fast
that biting is not the right way to ask attention. Our Ferrets are not
allowed on one table, they need to get over a chair en then take a Jump.
Because we are dealing with Ferrets here they will try again and again,
certainly when there are nice and interesting things on the table.
A well placed "NO" when the Ferrets starts the jump is enough to
make him forget all about it. When they do get on the table the are grabbed
by the scruff of the neck, this does them no harm, and will hear an angry,
"No, You can't do that" After whish they are put on the floor again.
The first couple of times the Ferret runs right back to the chair en
jumps on
the table again. Consistently pointing the Ferret on its mistakes
does work, but You can expected that they will try it every now and than,
just to see if the master is watching!
House Training
A Ferret is house trained, and one of the subjects where most of the questions
are about, besides the biting, is house training. Apparently it is not going as
self-evident as is presumed. A Ferret who comes from a proper family is thought
the little tricks of being a ferret by his mother. They usually will not
course so many problems. Other Ferrets clearly have to be thought this and that
will take a lot of time and attention. Every time the ferret appears do his
"thing" on a place whish is not suitable, the owner needs to pick up
the Ferret and put it on the Ferret bin. This is the best way of house training.
However following the ferret around 24 hours per day, just to make sure
he/she doesn't make a little mistake in a forbidden corner is impossible.
A Ferret usually places his droppings in a corner, as far away from the cage as
possible. Here we recognize the family ties with the earlier beasts of Prey,
You do not point out to Your prey where Your habitat is, and Your enemy's
You rather put on the wrong track too. Our ferrets are almost housetrained
within the cage, We achieved this by putting cloths on the bottom of the cage,
as well as toy's, boxes etc. They just did not have enough room to de their stuff
anywhere else but in the litterbin. And VERY IMPORTANT, make sure You clean out the
litterbin on a regulars basis. When there are too many droppings in the bin, the
Ferrets are going to find another clean place. Outside the cage, is a what bigger
problem. The Ferrets will run to a corner if he is not able to find the litterbin
that fast. Just like little children who have no time to run to the toilet and pie
in their pants (the children). In our house there are Ferret toilets
in two of the
corners, unfortunately we find some droppings besides the ferret bin,
(we still do
not who does that, if we tried to catch them they look at you so innocent)
What now is the best approach (according to me): Put a Ferret who is about to relieve it self, directly on the Litterbin. Make sure the ferrets have a clean Ferret bin in the Cage and cover the the bottom of the cage up with toys and cloths when they have problems with the training there. The Ferrets are not allowed out of the Cage before they did their droppings. Make sure the litterbin is cleaned at least twice a day. While cleaning keep a bit of the old litter in the bin, the Ferrets will smell that and won't dig the place under. Our Ferrets have Cat litter in their toilet, this will produce large lumps when they went on the toilet, these lumps can easily be removed with a sieve. New litter in the bin and Fons is done. But then our ferrets start digging fiercely in the litterbin, the solution... the contend of the bin needs to be mixed first so they hardly smell that there is something new and interesting. And above all, but that applies for al raising problems with Ferrets, Stay consistent!
Problem ferrets