Ferrets - Can Anyone Explain Them If You Have Them?

Question

Ive done my homework but i need to hear reviews about them from people who have/had them. =]

Answer 1

Ferrets have a tendency to get diseases, like Aleutian Disease. They can also contract canine distemper. They've also been known to get Disseminated Idiopathic Myositis and can easily suffer from heatstroke. They also have problems with hind leg weakness, the neurons in their brain, and they can contract rabies. Sadly, ferrets, because of human breeding and domestication, have become sickly animals that don't live to their natural life span. If they weren't plauged by so many health problems, they would live a lot longer.

Answer 2

Aleasha's post is great, but she didn't really explain the main source of these problems.

It isn't domestication that is severely reducing the lifespan of these ferrets, it's massive amounts of inbreeding, poor diets, and an almost total lack of exposure to proper lighting.

In the USA, Marshal Farms has almost completely monopolized the ferret industry. They are the biggest supplier of pet ferrets in the world and all the animals they sell are already spayed and neutered. This means that small private breeders in the USA are few and far between. Marshall Farms ferrets only live to be approximately 5-7 years old, whereas ferrets in other areas like Europe and Australia frequently live to be 10+. More on that below.

Diet is also a huge problem with ferrets. Most people feed their ferrets a diet of mostly processed ferret kibble they bought at the pet store. Ferrets have very specialized digestive tracts and they absolutely can not digest vegetable matter. Since most processed foods contain high amounts of corn, wheat, barley, or rice, too much of the typical ferret diet contains foods that make them sick or harm their gut. The most appropriate diet for a ferret (cats and dogs too, for that matter) is a species-appropriate diet of whole pre-killed prey animals like mice, rats, fish, poultry, egg, and even insects. Most people call this Raw-feeding or BARF diets. Ferrets on these natural diets live a lot longer than ferrets being fed cereal, even the good brands like EVO.

A third and less-mentioned problem with the way typical ferrets are kept is that they rarely ever get outside in the sunshine. Most ferrets are kept in climate-controlled houses with artificial fluorescent lighting. This contributes to several diseases brought on by nutritional deficiencies.

In other places where there are many ethical private ferret breeders, healthy long-lived ferrets aren't hard to come by.

For some really great information on ferrets, I highly suggest the Ferrets for Dummies book.

They are a lot like kittens who never grow up. They are totally fearless and infinitely curious about everything. Even if they live in a gigantic cage, they still need a few hours to run around and play every day. This means your house needs to be ferret-proof. Ferret-proofing isn't as hard as say..rabbit-proofing, because they aren't gnawers. But they are bad about getting into small spaces and getting stuck, getting crushed in the mechanical parts of reclining chairs, and escaping your house. They don't have any kind of homing instinct so if they get loose, they rarely come back. They also often eat small objects like pennies and things so you have to keep things picked up. They also are bad about taking small things and stashing them. My dad's beeper ended up under my sisters bed for about 3 years. One great thing about ferrets is that they usually aren't aggressive towards other carnivores like cats and dogs. Still, some dogs should be kept separated from ferrets because they will just see them as prey. But, ferrets have a HUGE prey-drive. You can never leave them unsupervised around other small pets. They WILL kill your rodents, birds, reptiles/amphibians, etc. They will even get in your fish tank and eat your fish. So it's imperative to keep them away from any other pets you have. My ferrets live in the family room, while all our other caged pets are safe in their own bedroom.

When it comes to caring for them, the first thing people need to know is that they aren't legal in most places. In the USA, they are not banned on a federal level. But some states forbid them. Some counties have bans on them. Cities can ban them. Or if you live in a suburb, you might have a Housing Association that doesn't allow them. If you rent a home, you may not be able to have one, depending on your landlord's rules. In most places, ferrets are required to have a yearly rabies vaccination and may have to be registered yearly with the city/county. It's also a good idea to get your ferret vaccinated against Distemper. You have to go to an Exotics vet for this as the cat/dog distemper vax are NOT safe. In areas where there are wild minks or mink farms, it's also a good idea to get your ferret tested for ADV. It's a highly contagious disease that eventually kills them (kind of like FeLV or FIV?) so if your ferret has it, you should take steps to keep him from contaminating others.

You should also microchip them if you can since it's nearly impossible to keep a collar on them.

The ferret cage should be a multi-level cage with solid (not wire) floors. A cage for one ferret is about the equivalent to what you might put 4 rats in. For Americans, I like to recommend the SuperPet Deluxe cages or the Midwest Ferret Nations. If your ferret is potty-trained, you don't need any kind of particle bedding in the cage. You can provide hammocks, blankets, and any manner of tubes and things, but they are fine on a plastic bottom. Litter-training is probably the most difficult thing about getting a ferret. They have one-track minds and can be hard to train. They have a very short digestive tract so they p**p often, and like puppies, when they have to go, they have to go RIGHT NOW. We keep at least one litter pan in every room to prevent accidents. And they have two in their cages.

They can also be nippy as babies and it's important to train them out of biting before they become adults.

http://www.mdferretpaws.org/care/food_tr...

Ferrets need their nails trimmed often, and many of them will benefit from frequent tooth-brushings. Their teeth should be pearly white all the time. Ferrets DO have a smell, and this can be controlled by keeping their cage clean and bathing them. But more than one bath a month is going to strip their fur of it's natural oils causing them to actually smell WORSE.

Choosing which gender depends on where you get them. If you get them from a private breeder, you have a chance at getting on who isn't fixed yet. Intact male ferrets can be great, but like dogs, many of them develop aggressive or gross behaviour. Female ferrets should ALWAYS be fixed unless you plan on being a breeder. When a female ferret goes into heat but doesn't breed, the hormones can actually kill her. In the USA, it's almost impossible to get unfixed ferrets (I'll get to that in a second) so gender doesn't really matter. Males are generally larger, but that's about the only difference.

In the USA, most ferrets come descented already. But in reality, descenting is a relatively useless procedure. It does NOT change the way they smell. Un-descented ferrets are able to excrete a pretty foul-smelling goo if they are frightened or in severe pain, but if a pet ferret is being kept properly this almost NEVER happens. Descenting can actually increase the risk of prolapsed r****m problems and potty-training and I wish they wouldn't do it.

In the USA, Marshal Farms is the number one producer of ferrets. They came in and bought up almost all the stock in the country and started breeding ferrets in mass. They are able to offer ferrets for a much lower price (around $100) than the typical private breeder (about $250) so almost all the private breeders who are left have a really hard time getting business. Not only that, but they wont sell any ferrets who are not already fixed, ensuring a continuing reduction in the amount of competition. Since they are a true mill-breeder, many of their ferrets suffer from congenital defects like Waardenburg's Syndrome (deafness, usually associated with high-white markings on the head). They are also highly prone to contagious disease and parasites. These problems have cut the average ferret lifespan in half or worse in the last 10 years or so. Marshall Farms sells to Petco and almost any "local" shop that sells ferrets also buys from them. PetSmart supposedly has their own line of ferrets that they are selling, but they aren't any better than Marshall's. Marshall ferrets can be identified by two small dot tattoos in one of their ears. It's also important to know that the food Marshall's sells and uses is one of the worst on the market. Not only is it unhealthy, but it makes them smell about 10x worse than normal.

And I'm not sure what else I can really say. They can be leash-trained. They are very fun. They can play with cat and dog toys, but avoid anything edible. Sick ferrets are bad about not eating solid food, so most people recommend getting your ferret used to eating Duck Soup so that they wont starve if they ever need surgery. You can find recipe's online. They can get just about any parasites that dogs and cats can get.

There are tons of great ferret communities online. The FerretAttitude community on LiveJournal is AWESOME, as is the NaturalFerrets group on Yahoo (especially for finding private breeders and feeding raw).

If you don't live in the USA, please say so and I can get you some information that is more specific to you.

Answer 3

That was a good indepth answer. But having 8 ferrets of my own I cant think of never having ferrets again. They are wonderful. I am also a member of a ferret forum and you should come check it out. Its awsome and you can ask all the questions you want. there's pictures to look at, food suggestions, inportant articals, and so much more.

everythingfert.proboards36.com

Answer 4

hahahah...dont listen 2 all that c**p!

lol...ferrets r amazing!..i have two...teazer & fawn

there the most mischevios pets ever there like puppies n kittens but for eva...coz there soo playful!!

i ***** imagion my life with out them...they dont bite...1 of my ferrets play bites every now n agen only becoz he wants you to play with him

mine are litter trained..very easy 2 do

i take them for walks...there amaing..but the only thing against them is all they wanna do is play...so they wont sit n have cuddles for long..but i love them =)

gd luck x