Any Ferret Keepers? *Urgentish*

[midori1999]

Someone has just brought a ferret to our door. It's not ours, we don't have any ferrets, but we said we'd keep it until the owner could be found, or keep it if they can't.

We have a large rabbit hutch we can temporarily house it in, whch will have to go in our garage as we have hens in our bak garden. Are shavings/straw OK bedding?

What should we feed it? We have dry dog or cat food or raw meat in the freezer we can defrost, is this OK for now? Can they eat eggs?

Any other thoughts?

Cat food. It will chew through wood though.

Straw is fine, cat food or raw meat and mine never chewed through wood.

We used to feed ours tinned cat food and butchers meat scraps. They lived in a rabbit hutch in the yard with straw and shavings. ours never chewed through wood either.

it won't chew through wood.

newspaper on the floor, a fleece blanket in a cardboard box for a bed.

catfood ok for a day or two, but get ferret food after that.

Ours did (chew through wood) but he was a total houdini and came to an unpleasant end :(

Thanks. I am just waiting for a detailed email from my friend who has experience of ferrets as she does rescue/foster work.

He/she (husband is the only one who has held it and was unsure, plus it was bitey! ) is in the rabbit hutch in the garage with newspaper on the floor and straw in the sleeping area. We've given a bowk of water and some dried cat food, plus a raw chicken breast for now. It has eaten quite a lot, and hidden some chicken in it's bed, so I think it must have been hungry. We have no idea how long it's been lost for. The chao who found it said it was chasing rabbits.

How much should we feed it? As much as it wants? We'll stick to the dry food other than the chicken it's had tonight, but is it OK to give it an egg in the morning?

We will be off to the vet as soon as they open as I understand it might be microchipped. Also off to get some proper ferret food tomorrow.

Should I frontline it or something?

You can get full advice and help from the Ferrethelp website. They keep a list of lost and found ferrets, and may be able to arrange fostering.

For now, the advice of nosnownowsnow is good. The Range shops now sell ferret food (so do Pets at Home).

Further on the ferret (sorry, hit 'post' too soon by accident). Beaten raw egg in the morning should be ok - mine love it. For now, give unrestricted access to food and water. Ferrets have very short digestive tract, so they need something available at all times.

james wellbeloved make a complete ferret dry

ferrets dont, as a rule, chew thru wood

eggs or frozen chicks are good

i used to keep and rehome ferrets

Thankyou. We're happy to keep it if the owner isn't found and will get a friend/friends for it and sort out better housing. We have so many animals an extra one or two wouldn't make much difference and I have the luxury of not working, so plenty fo time.

I'll top up it's food again before bedtime and give the egg in the morning, can it have it shell and all? (my rats would!)

No frozen chicks, but I do have frozen rodents, which I undertand they can have, but I can't stand the thought of it, bizzarely really as I feed them to my snakes no problems!) I will get some chicken wings and stuff for it tomorrow as well as the dried ferret food.

Thankyou.

btw, male ferrets (hobs) have a season spring thru autumn....photoperiodism

Don't know about the egg shell (never tried it). Ferrets are a funny mixture of demanding and easy to keep. They have to be trained not to bite, and they need at least a couple of hours' free play every day (they play and explore very energetically). But they sleep the rest of the time away (up to 20 hours a day), and don't have separation anxiety.

Ideally a ferret should have another ferret (or more) for company, but they can be very choosy, and may fight for a long time before acceptance comes.

I think they are ideal pets, but can only say that because I have the time to spend on them, and an enclosed garden they can run around in. You can also take them for walks on a lead, but I now go to isolated places because otherwise I get stopped every few yards by curious people wanting to know what these cute animals are.

Thanks again.

Clutha Thankyou. I knew Jill ferrets had seasons and problems with them if they weren't neutered, but wasn't aware Hobs has seasons too. I think we'd be looking at neutering anyway ideally.

BerryinClover thankyou. There is no chance of having them in our garden as we also have hens, which I suspect they'd be very interested in. That is one of the reasons we have sited the hutch in our garage. If we keep him/her we will get at least one other and a bigger home with a run area for play, but I am aware they need to be 'played' with every day too. Is a large hutch with a large run or one of the chicken coops with run attached suitable in your opinion? Would it be easier to introduce younger ferrets to the existing one (assuming the owner isn't found!) or are the just as likely to object? Does neutering increase likelehood of acceptance of newbies? If they do fight are they likely to cause serious injury?

Sorry for all the qeustions.

Yes they would go for the hens. People find some of the chicken coops with runs are good (see discussion of this on ferretsforum ).

It is the resident ferret who may object to newbies (whether they are youngsters or not), and neutering makes no difference. My resident (neutered) hob was terrified of a pair of kits, tried to escape from the garden and then attacked, not only the kits, but the female he'd been living with very happily up to that point. He attacked all of these quite viciously, and I had to isolate him. It's taken four months to integrate the whole group (the male 'kit' is now bigger than him!).

Only today, as it happens, has he accepted his original mate into his hutch (the female kit tried to get in with him, but he chased her away). It was fascinating (as a MN-er!) to see first the kit female, and then the adult female, overcome memory of his attacks on them, and try to get in with him - he's not even the clear victor.

Don't worry about asking questions - fire away, there seem to be quite a few ferret mums on here...

Thanks.

Would it be likely to help introduction if we put the ferret in the new home at the same time as introducing newbies, as it's new territory for all or are introductions better done more slowly so the ferrets are in sight of each other at first but not able to get to each other and take it slowly?

Obviously all a little way of and assuming Custard stays here, but I like to be prepared.

Should add that the resident female was quicker to accept the newbies, but even she was scared at first.

On the other hand, (I had her alone at first) she and the hob I got for her companion accepted each other straight away. She was already adult, and he was just a kit then. You never can tell, with ferrets...

Woops a bit of cross-posting there. Perhaps putting all in a new territory together would help. Opinions differ on whether it's better to keep all separated until they get used to the sight and smell of each other before actually meeting - some think that this just raises the tension.

I was resigned to keeping my hob separately for ever, but he's had sight, sound and smell of the others for four months. When let out, he attacked them until the kit hob was big enough to scare him back (I'm sorry to see that my resident hob, sweet as he is with me, is actually a bully...).

Ferrets do play-fight a lot, and it can look alarming, but my resident hob was injuring the others until I pulled him off - bites that broke the skin around the back of the neck. They usually play-fight by grabbing the loose skin at the back of the neck, and trying to flip each other over. If they break the skin, you know it's not just playing.

Please feed him proper ferret food or raw meat (not pork) as cat food doesn't contain the right conbination of nutrients and can lead to kidney failure.

where abouts are you?

DH has five, one escaped a few weeks ago and we've put loads of fliers up. We're in east surrey and the ferret is a huge polecat hob.

We'd be happy to adopt him if you want him to live with a ferret family? ours all live together in a big complex in the garden and we put the girls in their own one when they come into season in feb/march.

If you do get another for company, it is really hard to say how it will go. jills are usually more accepting than hobs but you would then have to get one neutered. You could introduce them slowly and see how they get on.

We have a matriarch in our group and she susses out newbies. DH had her from a kit and she was bite- trained and well handled from very young. she keeps the others in check.They usually take a dwe days to get used to each other but within a week, they'll be all snuggled up together.

RE; rodents, let them defrost first, or if you catch any rabbits you can chop them up and give bits as a treat. No cooked bones, only raw to avoid splintering.

sorry if that sounded like a lecture!

Thanks again Berry. I'm well used to other animals, so I suppose it will be similar to introducing rodents/hens/dogs/cats etc.

Ihavenewsockson the cat food is only temporary until we can get some proper ferret food tomorrow. Will that not be OK until then? He/she has had some chicken too and I will defrost some minced beef overnight. I don't have any meat with bones in at the moment, but can get some tomorrow. (am aware they need to be fed raw)

Also, I read on the ferret forum that BerryinClover kindly linked that it is an myth they can't eat pork and they are saying on there it is OK and they especially like pork ribs? I have spend all afternoon reading up like mad online and my friend has been helpful too.

I am in Northern Ireland. It's very kind of you to offer a home, but we'd been sort of thinking about ferrets for a while anyway as my husband shoots. (DH has a book but it's very old fashioned and suggests bread and milk as a food, but I know they can't have lactose) I am not sure, but I don't think ferrets are overly popular as pets over here and due to where he was found I suspect he has been lost while taken out shooting/hunting. We're more than happy to spend some money housing him/her properly and getting a friend or two.

We'll leave him to settle tomorrow, unless the evts opens, but hopefully bring him in for a play the day after.

Loads of great advice here - I didn't realise there were so many ferret lovers here. :)

We only have one atm although his "mum" (DD2) is desperate for us to adopt another, I'll give her her due, she does care for him well. He's in a large cage in her room atm owing to the weather. Ever since, she's been reading him to sleep at night! She's staying at Grandma's atm. Just before getting into the car she had me promising I'd read him to sleep in her absence! :o

Very glad to discover other ferret mums on here - and yes I do think that pets attach themselves to us because they see us as a mother parent.

I got my first ferret as an alternative to a dog, mainly because I couldn't see how it would be possible to manage without leaving a pet alone for long periods. Dogs, I know, don't like it whereas ferrets just go to sleep when nothing's happening. And you can take ferrets for a walk (one of my reasons for wanting a dog). You can't get a very brisk walk with a ferret, because they have to sniff everything, though my first hob is responding very well to click training, and walks much better now.

Ok, we have established Custard is an uneutered boy. He also has fleas.

DH (I am preg so need to be careful) is going to frontline the ferret with the cat/puppy spray, but we aren't sure if we need to do anything with the cage other than clean it out?

Well we managed to get hold of the vet who said to spray the ferret with the Frontline and rub it in with rubber gloves, which we've done. We also looked online and decided to spray the hutch with frontline a bit and clean it right out again first then put new bedding it. I've never had an animal with fleas before, so I am a bit paranoid to say the least, but feel so sorry for the poor boy.

We are taking him to the vet tomorrow to be scanned for a microchip. They say they have never microchipped a ferret so I am not overly hopeful we'll find his owner. We'll discuss with them what we should do next and at what point we can say the ferret is ours and have him vaccinated, neutered and chipped.

He is eating well, but I have noticed he hides some food in his sleeping area. Is this normal behaviour? We haven't had a chance to get to the shops today, but are doing so tomorrow. I was a bit worried about giving hm more cat biscuits so we've just been giving him plenty of meat (minced beef and some chicken) and I am deforsting some raw king prawns for his supper later, which I have read they can have.

Will have a big stock up tomorrow and get a ferret harness so he can go for walks as obviously I don't want to bring him in the house until the fleas are sorted out. |We'll also get the poor boy some toys and look at more permenant caging options.

its normal for them to store food in corners