ferrets have no fun?

Question
QUESTION:     I usually let my ferrets out every day or every other day. I have plenty of toys, tons of space, and everything. They just act like they are bored. I chase and wrestle them and they hiss. I toss them on the couch and they run away. I have new toys but they just get tired of them and don't care much when I put new ones in.
  They used to dook and get all excited for playtime, but lately they don't even really wrestle each other. If my one ferret tries, the other just hisses and glares at her. I tried getting them riled up today, and they just won't!
They are healthy and have a gigantic fancy cage. What's wrong with them? Why won't they have fun during playtime? I don't really know what to do. If they are craving my attention, why do they hiss and run away when I hold and tickle/wrestle them?

ANSWER: One of the challenges with ferrets is that they are intelligent!  Often smart animals are hard to keep entertained.  There are some great resources online for ferret enrichment.  Search for anything by Bob Church and ferret enrichment.  Bob writes an article for Ferret magazine each publication relating to enrichment so there are months and months worth of ideas.  Each article deals with a different sense - like smell, sight etc.  Lots of his information is online, but you can always subscribe to ferrets magazine too, it isn't too expensive.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: ya, it just seems like they don't like playtime as much. Any other ferret would be entertained, but they are either scared of it or bored of it. also, why do they not play with each other as much or me? if they crave my attention, why do they hiss when I try to play with them?


Answer
What entertains you may not entertain them.  Ferrets like to play, but they don't play like a cat or a dog so you may be too rough or you may be interrupting their exploring and they don't want to play.  Pay attention to their schedule since you may be trying to play with them when they aren't interested.  They may not be craving your attention at that moment and the hiss is their way of telling you to either play later or don't play like that!