Ferret Questions....

[BulldogBalls]

Ah I didn't see your second post at first, tried to edit ran out of time.. sorry for the multiple posts!

They can survive on rats but it is very messy. I would be hesitant to do this myself for the sanitation issues and unless you breed the rats it would be more expensive than buying food. They need to eat every 4 hours as adults, so they need one rat per ferret per day and you'd have a rat carcass or two sitting in the cage ALL DAY. You would have to keep them separate all the time for this as they can't/won't eat all they need in one sitting and over live/raw food get very possessive/competative with eachother.

[GirDance]

As far as cooked foods, i've read the following are all okay: fish other than tuna, chicken, beef, liver, lamb.

Bedding: blankets, old clothing and fleece.

Toys: Kongs, tubing, fleece plush toys. Nothing containing rubber or chewable peices.

Litter: anying non-clumping or clay based. Gravel fine.

As far as water though, is a water bowl okay? I really despise the commercial rabbit and rat water dispensers as if not cleaned daily they go all slimy and I'm always worried about the plastic breaking down/possible toxins leaching into the water (see the recent news thing on why you shouldn't use plastic baby bottles anymore, or reuse your old water bottles).

Can someone address the 'smell' factor? The rescue shelter nueters and spays all of their ferrets, but will the males still bath in their own urine to attract a mate?

[BulldogBalls]

Gravel : ??? No. Gravel would be aweful The best litter in my experience is rabbit pellets, pelleted rabbit food. Or Aspen pellets. Anything else is difficult to clean, does not control odor at all or is dangerous or flung easily by ferret paws.

Limit the organ meat but all the meats you listed are good.

Watch kongs, they are a rubber and ferrets can be surprisingly good chewers.

Water bowls.. not so much. They will play in the water, dump it over, put their litter and food in it. It is more messy than a water bottle. I use plastic rodent water bottles, never had a problem with them Get a bottle brush with a really bristley end and a stiff pipecleaner and you should be fine, clean them once a week.

Smell depends on several things. How often the boxes are cleaned, the size of the cage, if the ferret gets out to play, type of litter, and diet. Mine don't smell. They don't soak in their urine unless by accident. That is why gravel is not a good litter, no soaking ability the liquid would just be pooled there. Scoop the boxes once a day, and get some ferret bath wipes and you are good to go, no smelly critters.

I've had 5 ferrets in one large cage at one time and had no smell. If you scoop the boxes every day you will be fine.

[spix14]

Ah, one more thing I remembered. Make sure to get one of the food bowls that clamps to the side of the cage, or the little darlings will run you crazy knocking their food over.

[BulldogBalls]

Spix I use heavy ceramic crocks that they can't tip, but the ones that attach to the cage work well also. Either way you will notice some ferrets like to dig in their food. One of mine will only eat food that is not in a bowl, he has to dig it out and then eat it if off the plastic. Wierdo.

[joemophase]

before you get them. they only live for around 5 to 6 years.do you realy want to do that to youre self?

[Royal_Rodents]

before you get them. they only live for around 5 to 6 years.do you realy want to do that to youre self?

dont' try to talk her out of it joe,
ferrets are the coolest animal in the world 2nd after pythons and other snakes.

i say get one only reason i dont own one is that they are expensive like a mother here 200 euro or so

[Monty]

aww yay ferrets i love mine and if i didnt have a ferret i dont think i would look forward to coming home besides for my snakes but i cant cuddle and play with them like my ferrets. though they do need alot of supervision. mine have learned what areas are off limits. though thye do steal alot of things you always wind up finding them when u least expect it. also when looking for food its the same thing with cats and dogs try and find something with no by products. if anything use what i use wysong ferret formula i can only get it online but it is one of the better food out there. if you cant afford it a high quality kitten food will work. but its bath time for my lil stinkers once every 3 - 6 months you want bath them any more then that your only stripping the oils off and can make them more smelly

[Monty]

o and they live for 8 - 10 years not 5 - 6

[Jay_Bunny]

Just a little input from me. I have one ferret, a little beast by the name of Twitch. She is young (< 6 months) and she eats like a pig. We started feeding her commercial ferret food but after some reading not two days after we got her, that bag now sits in the closet, untouched. We switched her to a raw meat diet and every night and every morning she gets raw meat, bones about 2-3 times a week, and mice. We are switching her over to mice almost full time now.

IF you want to switch your ferret (if/when you get one) over to a raw meat diet or to mice, this is how we did it. Twitch would not touch raw meat at first, and mice she didn't even notice, so we fed her dry cat kibble for the first few days. We then took pieces of raw meat and wrapped them around the pieces of kibble. She could smell the kibble and figured the meat was part of this 'new' kibble and she ate it no problem. Once she got a taste of raw meat, she went nuts over it. We gradually began giving her more meat as part of her meals and bone as well. Then to try her on mice, we offered a f/t pinky mouse and she thought we were giving her a piece of meat so she ate that and LOVED it. We then tried her on a f/t hopper mouse. Devoured it. Then tried giving her a live hopper mouse. Her killing instinct is very strong and she ate it up. Currently she eats f/t large adult mice on a regular basis and occasionally we give her live hoppers. (dont' want to risk injury)

As far as it being messy, they are VERY messy with mice. We feed Twitch her mice in the bathtub so that she doesn't get blood all over her cage. They are very protective over food and if she tries to stash the remainder of a mouse in the bathtub's corner, I have quite a job of getting it away from her.