Game suggestions

Question
1) My ferret is 1 year old.
2) none
3) ultimate 8 in 1 ferret food and zupreem ferret food
4) normal
5) in her cage inside my house

I was just wondering what kinds of games I can play with my ferret. I usually let her out and I let her explore around and that's about all she does. She always runs away from me and then when I walk away she follows me and then tries biting my feet. So instead of her trying to bite me and always running away when I go near her, I want to be able to play games with her. So I need some ideas for games to play with her. Thank you!

Answer
Hello Daniel,



**********I answered both of your questions in this one answer, so I am going to delete your other question, but just know that I answered both questions in this response!**********

Well, I'm happy to tell you that your ferret is trying to get you to play with her. That is the way ferrets engage each other in play. Ferrets play extremely (or what looks extreme) rough with each other and she is just trying to get you to play with her. I would suggest getting down on your hands and knees and chasing her around when she runs away. Ferrets love to play chase. Our kids really love it when we get down on our hands and knees and crawl around on the floor after them. We also wrestle them with our hands. They really like that. It is really just about getting down there and interacting with them. Our little girl likes to play tug of war. Just last night, I took my scarf off and she picked it up and ran away with it and then came back and I went to grab it and she started tugging! She really loved that game, I think.

Another thing you could do for a game and this could double as a toy is you could cut holes into a box and fill it with plastic easter eggs. We filled a box with plastic easter eggs (halves) and then cut little "doors" into it and they love going in and out of that. We put little treats in there sometimes, making sure that they eat them within an hour or so and if they don't we take them out and replace them with new ones. They really like doing that.

Another game you could play, if your ferret likes water, is you could put her in the tub and then put little cups of water all around the bathtub and she will dump them over (that good ol' ferret curiosity) and  whenever she runs under the faucet, you can turn it on like a waterfall, making sure that the water isn't too hot or too cold.

Also, you could go out and get some PVC piping that she could crawl into. You could make it like a tunnel. Ferrets love that. With that, though, you're going to want to make sure that she doesn't get around any refrigerator tubing or anything like that because she may see it as something to play with and that could be extremely dangerous.

A lot of cat toys can double as ferret toys. You want to make sure that you don't get anything for her that she can chew up and eat because, again, there is a danger for intestinal blockage there. That means no toys that have bells  or squeakies in the them because your little girl could chew them up and eat the squeaker or the bell and that is a major hazard.

If you are interested in learning more about games and toys for your ferret, I really suggest you read a book called Ferrets for Dummies by Kim Schilling. That is a really great book with lots of good information.


If you have any further questions, please let me know.

Sincerely,
Emilee Andrews