Sleepy Ferret

Question
Hello, I have a 1 year old male ferret, his name is Darwin. I am kind of concerned with how much he sleeps compared to the little 6 month girl ferret i have, her name is Marley. Marley is up 7-8 hours, out of cage per day with a few short naps in between while Darwin sleeps 20+ hours even when I am home. When he does wake up, I  usually drop everything and try to play and get him motivated, but most times it seems not to work. Whenever I get home from class around 12:30 each day he usually wakes up for 30 minutes and goes right back to bed. He always eats and drinks a lot when he is up, is litter trained, doesn't bite and usually is never playful. Sometimes I will catch him rolling around joyfully on the couch when no one is looking or does a brief little "war dance" when I talk excitedly to him. Other than that he seems like he lacks energy to jump around like the little girl does. The vets at Cornell University checked him over and said he was a healthy guy, just sleeps more than a cat. Was wondering what I could do to motivate him and make sure is having fun. I got him in November when he use to play with me a little more than he does now... but he has always been a pretty mellow guy. Thank You!
PS his favorite thing to do is take showers!
-Brad

Answer
Like us, ferrets have different personalities and some like to sleep.  I have 8 with 8 personalities although age is also a factor.  My youngest are up a lot and play a lot - at about a year or 1.5 then seem to calm down a bit.  I have 2 that have always been sleepers - no matter what was going on around them.  You didn't say if the 2 are housed together or not - I would as the younger ferret may entice Darwin to play also.  Sometimes they want to play with a ferret not so much a human.  It also may be that his schedule is not one easy for you to catch him when he is up.  One of my sleepy ferrets is usually up at 2am (I know this from my husbands sleepless nights!)  Making sure you offer playtime even if he isn't really interested is still important!  As long as he is healthy, be happy.  He may like to snuggle instead and play and this is Ok too.  

I would make sure that he isn't too hot or stressed, but since your other ferret is up and about Darwin may just be a quiet and introverted ferret.

There are some great enrichment articles online and in ferrets magazine that could also help you find something that interests him into playing.
Ailigh