Ferrets As Pets Pt. One

If you think owning a ferret is simple and easy, you're wrong! As they are hard work to keep clean, fed, watered, exercised. Don't get me wrong they are wonderful little critters to have as pets but they pack a lot of work for such a small little animal!

Let me start off with saying I have two of them myself and they are a handful inside the cage and out! I have always wanted ferrets because they are fun to play with and you can hold them and train them to do little things. I rescued my two from a foster care but I never planned on the work they give me!

First was the cage, I got a bunny cage which was pretty big and accommodated it for the ferrets to pretty much find out that it was pretty small for them as they need space and levels to climb and jump around. Bigger the cage the better. But then again bigger the cage the more money they can be. Ferrets are by no means a cheap pet to have! My suggestion cage wise is keep a look out friends, family, craigslist, e-bay, amazon.com, ads in papers. It has to be prettyyy big for them to be happy. I was lucky a friend of mine was in between getting a new ferret and let me borrow her large cage until I got one.

As for the bedding for the cage.... I would say something easy to clean and not messy. They like to jump and dig and fluff the bedding. I bought this soft fluffy stuff and in minutes they had it outside the cage everywhere and it was not fun to clean! Keep a small layer at the bottom not too much as it gets smelly and you have to clean it quite a bit. Usually new bedding equals time to jump in it.

Litter training is really hard! I almost have given up. I have a corner litter pan that I clean daily but they still go in all 4 corners of the cage plus on one of the shelves. I guess you just have to keep trying with that and be patient. Word from the wise. CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN! They go to the bathroom A LOT and if you let it go too long not only will it smell but it will pile up fast and it's not fun to clean at that point trust me it's happened to me. I end up saying... I will do it tomorrow.... tomorrow comes and I repeat. It's better to just keep it clean.

Food and water are very important as they drink and eat A LOT. I have a cat dish that has two bowls in it just for water... here's the 411 on water and food they love to dump them. There's nothing worse than filling their water and food bowls and two minutes later watching them dump them both everywhere. Don't get a water bottle as they cannot get the right amount of water out of them to support their needs. I would get those rock bowls they have for reptiles usually have them as swimming things for them but it will be heavy enough to keep them from tipping it over as well as hold enough to keep them happy. For the food you could get the same thing but with food just be prepared they like to dig and kick their food out of the bowl so I would set the food bowl in your cage where they can't kick it out of the cage all over your floor. I set their food and water on the top at one point... bad idea .. I came back after a little bit and it was all over my floor scattered somehow they even got some on my bed across the room... Also for food they have treats you can give them I prefer giving them a can of cat food every once in a while its good for them and keeps them happy I also have ferret treats I got from a pet store.

Check out part two for grooming, breeding, and out of the cage time. Back To Whats-this