5 Ferret Facts: What to Know About Ferrets as Pets

5 Ferret Facts: 

What to Know About Ferrets as Pets

    If you want an active, playful, mischievous pet that will bring endless fun, then a ferret may be the right pet for you.
But before you bring one of these rambunctious little creatures into your home, here are 5 things to know about ferrets and proper ferret care.

    1-Ferrets love company

    Ferrets are social creatures that typically live in groups or colonies in the wild. Because they love company, pet ferrets generally look for human family members or other ferrets to hang out with.

    It’s much more fun to play when you have friends to play with. Consequently, many ferret owners end up owning more than one ferret.

    On rare occasions, two ferrets might not get along. So, if you get more than one ferret, you’ll need to supervise their interactions for several days to ensure they get along before you can safely leave them alone together.

    To minimize competition between ferrets, each one should have equal access to food, toys, hiding spots, and sleeping areas so that they’re less likely to fight over resources.

    2-Ferrets eat meat

    Wild ferrets are carnivores that hunt for and consume rodents and rabbits. Their GI tracts have evolved to digest animal protein and not vegetable matter.

    While a pet ferret should also be eating meat, their intestinal tract is not adapted to consuming raw meat in the same way as their wild counterparts. In fact, pet ferrets can develop severe intestinal infection with toxic bacteria such as Salmonella.

    Pet ferrets should be fed commercially formulated, high-protein/moderate-fat/low-carbohydrate diets that contain all the nutrients that ferrets require. These diets have also been prepared to eliminate potentially harmful bacteria.

    Several kibble diets are available for pet ferrets, and they generally love them.

    Before diets were developed specifically for ferrets, many people fed their pet ferrets cat food. In general, it’s preferable to use commercially available ferret food over cat food because ferret-specific diets meet the nutritional needs of ferrets more closely.

    3. Ferrets need to run

    Ferrets love to curl up and sleep, particularly if they can find a warm place to nap, but when they’re not napping, they also love to run, jump, climb, and hide. Ferrets also love toys.

    Young ferrets, in particular, enjoying skittering across the floor and chasing toys. Exercise for ferrets is key, or they will overeat from boredom and become obese.

    So, if you’re going to own a ferret, plan on lots of out of cage time for them to run around.

    Ferrets shed a lot of hair, particularly when the weather gets warm, and like cats, they may ingest this hair as they lick and groom themselves. This means that "like cats" ferrets can produce hairballs too.

    If they ingest a large amount of hair, it can stick together in their intestines and cause a potentially life-threatening obstruction.

    Ferrets with adrenal gland tumors commonly lose lots of hair as a result of hormones secreted by their tumors, and this often predisposes them to hairball development.

    To help prevent hairballs from forming, ferrets should be brushed at least once a week with a narrow-toothed hair comb meant for brushing either a ferret or a cat.

    If a ferret is shedding excessively, hairball laxatives made for either ferrets or cats can help hair pass through the GI tract more easily. These can be given by mouth once or twice a week.

    Talk with your veterinarian to find out more if you are worried about hairballs in your ferret.

    5-How to Find a Pet Ferret?

    If you decide that a ferret is right for you, you can rescue a ferret from one of several shelters across the United States, purchase one from reputable pet stores, or adopt one from a private breeder.

    If you are rescuing a ferret from a shelter, be sure to quarantine them from other pets, as animals from rescue facilities can carry illness (e.g., GI parasites, mild upper respiratory tract infections, etc.) that they could potentially transmit to other ferrets or to cats or dogs.

    Try to find out as much about the ferret’s history (i.e., why they were given up to the shelter) as you can, so that you can make the transition to your home as easy as possible.