We adopted 2 ferrets last Friday!
Both Kirk and I have had ferrets in our lives in the past.
When I was a teenager, my sister got Skeeter as a present form her boyfriend. She and I shared a room at the time, and we built a cage for Skeeter ourselves. We had absolutely no idea how to care for a ferret, and Skeeter was probably not the happiest little fuzzy, though we tried! My cat Naomi grew up with Skeeter and thought she was a ferret herself her whole life (19 years worth). She would hoard shiny things just like Skeeter taught her. My sister eventually gave Skeeter to a friend who had another ferret.
Kirk had a ferret of his own for several years before he went off to college. Her name was Kit. He also had a pet iguana at the same time. Kit was absolutely fascinated by that iguana and it was almost impossible to keep her away from it. Until one day Kirk found both iguana and ferret with scratches on their faces. Other than being slightly bloodied, both seemed fine. But Kit never went near the iguana again. When Kirk went to college he gave Kit to a friend who had a pet skunk. What a smelly combo that must have been!
Kirk and I have both wanted the opportunity to raise a ferret right, realizing years later all the mistakes we made with our previous fuzzies. That and the fact that Kirk is allergic to cats and neither of us want a dog (at this point) ferrets were a perfect choice.
The Monsters
Tyanak (Shay-Knock) is a 5 year old spayed female albino ferret. She has had adrenal disease and had one adrenal gland completely removed, and the other partially removed.
Loki is a 1 year old neutered male white ferret, his is not an albino. He seems to be in good health, but has had the tip of his tail removed due to injury.
I learned about these two fuzzies from a co-worker that fosters exotic pets/strays for Cullen’s Archangel RescuE, Inc http://www.caretoadopt.org/ .
So, we have this dainty little lady Tyanak, and this rambunctious youngster Loki. He has tons more energy than she has and needs more attention. She is only up for MAYBE 2 hours at a time. She usually runs out when we let them out for play time and heads to her ‘outside’ food and water dishes (things always taste better out of the cage) and eats and drinks a bit. She’ll diligently use the litter box we have in the bathroom. Then she goes into investigative mode and checks out every inch of her area. THEN she will play. She seems to want to play with us more than with Loki, as he is much more aggressive, but she often runs from him and dooks (makes ferret noises) at him and hisses if he gets too rough. Usually we don’t know she’s done playing until we find her fast asleep back in the cage where she went all by herself.
Loki tries to stay awake for more than 4 hours at a time, but rarely succeeds. The first day we had them he was out of his cage wandering around his new ferret resistant area (our back hall/bathroom/kitchen/breakfast nook area) for about 5 hours. We found him standing in front of his cage, perfectly still. Kirk got up close to him, talking to him. No reaction. Finally when Kirk reached to pet him, Loki turned his head and kind of wobbled a bit. Then seemed to become more alert. Kirk put him back in the cage and he immediately climbed into one of his hammocks and fell asleep. I think he was just so excited about not being put back in his cage that he didn’t want to admit how tired he was!
Tyanak was left with CARE, Inc. by a guy in the military that got re-assigned to a base in California, where ferrets are illegal to have as pets. He paid for her adrenal surgery and even got to watch, as he is also a veterinary student. He was heart broken to have to give her up. Loki was left with very little information at a local animal shelter. They guessed he was about a year old, but with as much weight as he has already gained from when they got him, he may have been closer to 8 months. He is at least twice the size of Tyanak!
Ferrets being ferrets
They are both very good about not biting. They do nip a bit during play time, but that is unavoidable. He has bit my sock a few times, I think just trying to get attention. Neither of them have bit me while I’m holding them. All in all, they are VERY mellow for ferrets. She perhaps as she is frail and still recovering from her adrenal surgery which was only three or so months ago. Him, I am hoping it’s her good influence!
She is not very interested in snacks, but he will try almost anything, which is another confirmation of his youth and her age. From all I’ve read, after about 18 months, ferrets don’t tend to be willing to try new sorts of foods.
She is pretty good about her litter habits. She has made a mistake or two when she first got out of her cage and I didn’t have a litter box outside the cage for her. Since then, she runs straight to it after nibbling a little food. He misses his litter box in the cage often, but I think it might be because the 3 (yes 3!) litter boxes we have in there are so small that he can’t get all his feet in them. Ferrets don’t like that. But he does his business right in front of the box on the newspaper I line the cage with so it’s not hard to clean up. When he is out of the cage, he seems to want to poop in front of the plexi glass barrier we have between the kitchen and the living room most. I’m going to have to figure out how to break him of that habit as I don’t want a litter box there! We are lucky that we have a large area for them to roam around that is all tile floors, though they do get some supervised time in the room above the garage that has carpet. No messes there yet, because we don’t let them up there until they have both pooped and peed.
Here are a few pictures: Picasa Web Album
And a video of Loki investigating a tunnel I made for him out of pvc drainage pipe and leftover fabric (for the low cost of $6): LokiTube
Future concerns.
Little Tyanak is a middle aged ferret, and she’s already got some health problems. On top of the adrenal disease, she has an enlarged spleen (which she will be going to the vet to have checked out soon). Loki will probably outlive her. And since a single ferret is a sad ferret, we are considering getting another fuzzy soon. Yes, three monsters! How crazy is that?
