Baby ferret is acting odd

Question
My ferret is three months old. She is a Marshall's ferret and has shown no signs of illnesses or disease. The ferret gets Marshall's ferret food and she lives in my room in a large cage. I give her free reign of my room for a few hours a day and consistently play with her. Her last defecation was pretty full. Lately while in her cage, she will just lay down and look like she is so depressed and I'm worried about her. I also went to wake her up the other night for her to get some running time at night and she wouldn't wake up. I had to shake her a little twice for her to even open her eyes. Is my ferret depressed?

Answer
Hi Jenny,

The first thing I want to say is that Marshall's is not the best food to give at all. It is probably one of the worst you can give her, actually. You probably know this, but ferrets are obligate carnivores. They can't digest anything but meat. Kibble has grains, corn and soy in it to help bind it to make the kibble shape and it is a "nice" filler. If a kibble has corn or soy (or any grain) in the first three ingredients then that kibble is not fit for your fuzzy's tummy! Here is a good food chart for you:

http://www.mdferretpaws.org/care/food_treats.html

As you can see, there are better foods out there. The general rule for kibbled food is: at least 36% protein, 22% fat and no more than 3% fiber. When you look at the ingredient breakdown on the side, corn (or corn products), soy, or grain should not be one of the first three listed. Also, you want to watch out for meat by-products in kibble. They won't necessarily hurt the ferret, but they don't hold a ton of nutritional value and by-products are the parts of the animal that isn't fit for human consumption.

Also, it is good practice to mix several high quality foods just in case your preferred brand goes off the market one day. That way, you will have food to fall back on. When ferrets get fed a certain food young in life, it is extremely difficult to switch their food. A tip on how to switch: it needs to be GRADUAL! Start off with about 85% old food, 15% new food and feed that for at least a week. Next time, try upping the new food percentage a little and going down on the old food percentage, and so on.

Now, as far as your question goes, it does not surprise me that she would not wake up right away. Ferrets tend to sleep so deeply that their parents often panic that they are dead. Don't worry, it is normal. Our fuzzies sleep so deeply that we sneak nail trims into their naps. If you really are scared that something is wrong, here are several options for you: shake her very gently, put Ferretone on her nose, rub her ears or belly. All of these should bring her out of her sleep.

Depending on how long she is out for the day, and how big her cage is, she may have cage stress. Does she bite or scratch at the bars of her cage? She may just be laying down because she is tired. A healthy ferret will sleep for around 18-20 hours a day.

Another thing to think about is maybe she wants a friend. Single ferrets are okay to have, but they need much more out of cage time than ferrets that have playmates. If they don't, they'll get bored and you will start to see cage stress kick in. So, if it isn't within your budget to get a friend, then you can try letting her out to play more.

Does she act lethargic when she is out of the cage? Is she still curious and excited when she sees you come to let her out? If not, I would suggest (if you haven't already) taking her to the vet for a check up. Ferrets hide their pain really well and they don't show their humans they're hurting until it is almost too late so it is always better to be safe than sorry.

I hope I helped. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!