Ferrets - Rats, Weasels, Skunks, or Friends? Meet "The Boys"

My daughter has always loved ferrets. She showed up one day with a cage and a ferret-Peppy. Peppy is one of those brown-and-white ferrets that you see looking at you on a bag of ferret food at the pet store. Of course, she then proceeded to obtain another ferret-Skippy. Now Skippy started out brown-and-white, but fairly quickly he lost all his color, becoming a creamy white. He was huskier than Peppy-but Peppy wasn't what you'd call skinny, either. Ferrets are more like skunks than anything else. They are born with a scent gland. They are de-scented in order to make them more desirable pets. Some time later, my daughter brought us a third ferret-one that was sick-to join the other two-Finnegan-"Finn." And so we had Skip, Pep, and Finn, "the boys."

Sleep and Play

Let me introduce you to a typical day for the boys. Sleep with ferrets is number one. Something even human "boys" like to do, sleep is a natural for them. They sleep more than twenty hours of every day. Next comes playtime. These creatures play as hard as they sleep. They act as if they have caffeine coursing their veins. They never rest. They are terribly curious. They are fearless. They can easily do something that will hurt themselves, and need their owner to care greatly about them. They have delicate spines, and this gives them a peculiar way of walking, a gait of little hops and prances. They are very entertaining, but are definitely daredevils. They soon tire out, and it's time to feed them.

Feeding Ferrets

Food for ferrets is critically important! They must not be given foods that haven't been properly evaluated for consumption by ferrets. They have extremely short digestive tracts, and a poor diet will quickly do them in. That cannot be stressed too strongly. These are not dogs-which will eat or can eat just about anything. All their lives, we've fed our ferrets one or more bowls of soup made from dry ferret food and water, microwaved, until most of it dissolves, and cooled until it is merely mildly warm. Most ferrets won't stand for a change in their food, so pick a brand that is readily available in your area. Include a bowl of dry food in their cage, since they need to have access at four-hour intervals to food.

Time to Clean Up

Now it's work time for you, their owner. Their cage must be cleaned-monthly, no-weekly, no-daily, yes. Their cage must be cleaned daily. Since many ferrets are taken too quickly from their parents, they may need to be potty-trained, which will not be discussed here. But whether or not they have been trained, their cage will need a going over daily. If the would-be owner is not willing to do that, well, it's time to forget owning a ferret. Cruelty is unacceptable, and cruelty it is to keep ferrets in a filthy cage. Ferrets are not a suitable pet for young children. Some sites, perhaps in an attempt to encourage the ferret industry, suggest ferrets make good pets. While they do, most people should not own ferrets. They demand extra efforts in the way we give them our love.

Getting Old

Unfortunately, the average ferret may not even reach its seventh year, despite being given the best of care. There are a number of diseases ferrets almost always succumb to. So how will you feel when one of your ferrets is clearly dying or in need to be "put down?" I can answer that one. I lost one three hours ago. Skippy stopped eating, lost much of his weight, and even stopped drinking. He was not in noticeable pain, but I had begun seeing black in the litter tray. Perhaps it was black blood or black from bile (I tend toward believing the latter, as it turned to clear black liquid with the addition of water). I knew it would be unfair to let Skippy go on.

Skippy

Oh, how can I convey how I felt? I knew that in an hour I'd be taking Skippy to the vet and saying "Farewell" to him. This was not a rat, not a weasel, and not a skunk. This was a friend, and I had to give more love to him now than ever before. My nose was stuffed, my eyes wet, my heart broken. I sat holding him and petting him. I wanted to be with him until the last. I wanted to make sure a friendly face was with him, and a friendly hand was petting him when he left. It was all I could do. See a photograph of a young Skippy in the bottom half of the photograph I attached with this article. He's play-wrestling with Peppy. Good-bye, Skippy. Good-bye, Friend ---