Ferrets Care: Four Essential Tips to Grooming a Ferret

     Your ferrets care is one of the most important things you can do for your ferret. Although they may be small your ferrets care will have to become a routine for you. They will require teeth brushing, hair grooming, nail care, ear cleaning and bathing to name a few. Even though ferrets will groom themselves that in not enough for them to keep them healthy and feeling their best. These 4 basic steps to grooming are maybe the most important for your ferrets care depending on their needs:

1. Ferrets Care: Brushing your ferrets teeth
It is recommended you should brush your ferret's teeth weekly I brush mine 1-2 times weekly. How you feed your ferret should be taken into consideration ?if your ferrets eat softer food they will need their teeth brushed more often, definitely every week. Where as crunchy harder dry food is a little more stable for your ferrets teeth and will only need to be brushed once every week or to two. The first few brushing will take longer and probably be a little traumatic for your ferret, but with some patience they will adjust to it. I use a pet toothbrush and toothpaste. I start at the back and rub at the back of their jaw and top of the neck to cause the yawn a quickly get all the back molars while the ferrets yawning and then work a little slower up to the canines and incisors. Try to pay careful attention and you may need to make them yawn again to get those molars, it is where the tatter and plaque build up the majority of the time. See a ferret cannot reach that fare back with their tongue and efficiently clean those teeth. Even brushing regularly, ferrets will need to get professional cleaning but the better you do the longer you can be pushed off. Vets recommend it every one to three years and like I said the better you do longer there will between cleanings $$$.

2. Ferrets Care: Cleaning your ferrets Ears
You should set up a weekly schedule for your ferrets care and cleaning the ears of your ferret should be on it because if you do clean them AND INSPECT them you will prevent infection, as well as ear mites and the dreaded odor. Use an ear cleaning solution that your vet recommends. It takes just a few drops; try to warm the bottle in your hand before you put the drops in your ferret's ears. You should gently massage the base of the ear and below to work the solution into the ear canal. This loosens any accumulated wax never put a q-tip into the ear canal, but you can use a q-tip to clean up the outer part of the ear. You may need to do this more then once, so until the ear is clean continue to work the q-tips. When your ferret have ear wax that抯 dark red-colored or black, you should call your vet - this is a strong indicator of ear mites and if left untreated it could cause deafness.

3. Ferrets Care: Clipping Your Ferrets Nails
Ferret's should have their nails clipped every other week and I go as far as clipping the front every week in the ferrets care schedule, other wise they could snag and rip off the nail. Okay just from experience make sure too get everything together:

a. Clippers - You can use ferret or cat clippers

b. Styptic powder ?Just in case you hit the quick the pink vein

c. Ferretone ?This will distract your ferret as you clip the nails

Hold your ferret in your lap on his back give him a shot of ferretone on his belly. Know clip quickly when you clip always make the clip parallel to the ground. This can be done easily if you always hold the clippers against the pad of the foot.

4. Ferrets Care Bathing your Ferret
My friends will come to me and say Brandon can I over bath a ferret? They seem surprised when I tell them yes it can cause dry skin, which makes them itchy and uncomfortable and this will actually cause an odor due to an over-productive oil glands. Now after this happens people think they need to give their ferret more baths, which causes the snowball effect, and your poor ferret suffers for it. You should use a ferret shampoo that is pH balanced to help maintain their skin. The other thing to remember is when filling their bath:

a. They have a core temp of 102 degrees Fahrenheit so make their bath a little warmer then for a cat (cats temp 100.5and dogs 100.5 to 102)

b. Be careful not to get water in the ears, it can cause an infection

c. Water, when your ferret is standing on all four and its head should be out of the water.

d. Shampoo should be rinsed out thoroughly if not it may cause your ferrets skin to dry out.

e. To dry your ferret use a towel to dry him; He will be damp, lay him down on a towel that is bunched- up, he will finish they will finish the job themselves.

Your ferrets should be just about show ready now, but they should be the happiest and best-groomed ferrets around! And that is your ferrets care 101 class.