20 Most Common Questions About Ferrets

These furry creatures are very social, intelligent, and will win your hearts easily with their childish behaviour and personality. Just like dogs and cats, ferrets too can learn basic household manners, if trained consistently. They can be taught to use the litter box, not bite humans, and to even exhibit a kind behaviour.

In any case, ferrets like to get their hands on everything. They will collect and pile up whatever seems interesting to them, in their own secret place. Also, they tend to chew up everything that seems edible to them. Therefore, pet owners need to be extremely careful to avoid letting anything valuable or risky get into the hands of a ferret.

Ferrets are typically very active in nature. They maintain a great bond with their owners. However, as they grow old, they tend to become more affectionate. Ferrets enjoy being cuddled. If you love and care for them enough, they might even end up falling asleep in your lap.

If you plan to have a single ferret, then you need to arrange for a cage having dimensions of at least 36 inches x 24 inches x 24 inches. In case you are planning to get 2 ferrets, then a single ferret cage won’t have enough space. You need to add 6 inches to the dimensions of the single ferret cage so that your ferrets can move around comfortably.

Remember that your pet ferret needs to be out of the cage for at least 4 hours per day. If you cannot provide that free time, then it is better to buy a bigger cage with lots of space and hard toys for your ferret to play with.

It will cost you $65 to $250 to buy a ferret. You should also add another $150 to $350 for getting your pet vaccinated for rabies and other diseases, to provide basic supplies, and for veterinary examinations.

Apart from this, one should also consider the cost of regular food supply, toys, deodorizing litter cleaners and more. In addition to this, you should also take into account the budget required for regular vaccine renewals, routine veterinary care, and applicable licenses.

Ferrets are very social animals and bond well with their families. Therefore, they become very affectionate towards their owners and recognize them well. The only thing is that you will have to spend enough time playing with them to increase their bonding with you.

Ferrets are extremely intelligent creatures. They respond to verbal and visual commands and can learn plenty of tricks. When given a name, they understand the same and respond to that when called.

Since ferrets are extremely social animals, they often seek the company of human beings or other ferrets. However, not being able to find a good family may result in ferrets feeling sad and lonely. This can ultimately affect their diet and health conditions as well. Hence, it is extremely important to bond and spend enough playing time with your ferret.

Pet ferrets show plenty of signs when they are happy and excited. If your ferret is joy dancing, rolling over, or nipping at your hand, then it is excited, happy, and inviting you to play along. Other signs of them being happy include eating healthy, spying and pouncing over their toys and owners and wagging their tail.

However, if your ferret is unhappy then it will usually maintain a safe distance from you and will show their teeth in anger. An owner should be able to recognize the difference between a ferret’s happy, angry, and sad gestures.

As ferrets grow older, they become more affectionate, cuddly, and end up sleeping on your lap. Therefore, an old ferret is more likely to sleep with you than a ferret which is young and energetic.

Ferrets are very smart and intelligent. They respond well to verbal and visual commands, and with consistent training, they can learn various tricks as well. They understand many basic things and show many types of behaviour and personality.

Young ferrets are usually energetic and may get excited about everything interesting that they see. However, as they get older, they become smarter, more affectionate, and slower; which makes them easy to handle.

Ferrets have good strong teeth as they are hardcore carnivores and eat meat. Due to this reason, they tend to bite sometimes, which can be very painful. However, a healthy, well-trained, and happy ferret will never bite.

cat is a bigger and more threatening predator when compared to a ferret. However, in a fight between a ferret and a cat, the former is seen to dominate. That is mainly because even ferrets are predators and they don’t usually run away from a cat. Since most catfights can be won by hissing and staring, a ferret usually dominates the fight.

In any case, it is usually not a fight to the death as most ferrets and cat pairs seem to get along well. It gets better if the ferret and the cat belong to the same household and bond well.

Ferrets can easily kill a snake if it’s small and not very threatening. However, larger and venomous snakes usually prove to be stronger and life-threatening to a ferret that is comparatively smaller in size. In any case, a ferret will not easily back out in a fight between these two.

Ferrets are generally very social with each other and enjoy having multiple friends. However, fights can occur even among friends. Ferrets may end up fighting over many things, but these fights are never life-threatening.

Ferrets are very cute and attractive creatures; however, they do have a strong musky smell that might hit your nose as soon as you enter the vicinity. The smell is mainly due to the presence of oils on their skin, which is greatly minimized when the ferret is neutered or spayed.

They also have scent glands which give out a strong smell when ferrets tend to be defensive in nature. In any case, the eating habits of ferrets also greatly contribute to their body odour. Therefore, feeding the right diet is also an important factor to consider.

Ferrets by nature are strict carnivores and require a diet that is most suitable to their eating habits. When in the wild, they usually prey on other animals and eat the whole of them, including their meat and bones.

Ferrets require a diet that is high in protein and fat, but it should also be low in carbohydrates and fibre. For this, it is considered better to provide a constant supply of high-quality commercial ferret or kitten food. Ferrets require food at regular intervals as they have a very high metabolism.

Ferrets generally become quick friends with other pets and children. However, adult supervision in the first few days of meeting is necessary. This is mainly because children are not able to handle ferrets properly, which may make them feel threatened and attacked, ultimately making them bite the children.

Therefore, teaching children how to handle and play with them during the first days is very important.

Ferret proofing is a more intense process than childproofing, mainly because ferrets are very small in size and tend to get into everything. Ferret proofing is important to make sure that there are no holes left to close, even the ones which are only about 1 square inch or bigger.

Also make sure that your ferret does not go behind the refrigerator, stove, washing machine, dishwasher or dryer. Along with this, remove anything in the room that is small enough for your ferret to eat that may prove to be hazardous for them.

Pet ferrets typically live between 8 to 10 years. However, with proper care and a healthy diet, the lifespan could increase substantially.