DD wants a ferret

[meditrina]

I'm not sure I'm up for any livestock at all at the moment.

But this suggestion has rather intrigued me.

Any ferrety households here (should I be posting/searching in super furry critters?)

She wants to race them, and get a little shoulder harness so she can take one for a walk? Is that even remotely likey? Or are they strange smelly long rats which bite all the time?

Rats are very very easy to socialise btw. In ten years I've had 35 rats and only one of them was difficult, but he was left on his own in a pet shop into adulthood. He still turned into a brilliant little chap and had a happy life but he was tough work, and I was very experienced.

Get a couple of babies (a trio even better in case of unexpected death) but try getting from a rat breeder rather than pet shops. Pet shop purchases are usually quite unethical (I could tell you stories about the rat equivalents of puppy farms that stock a lot of pet shops) and many rats sold there will suffer a lot of illnesses. A good breeder breeds for health - pet shop stockists breed for high turnover and desirable breeds. Less social too. Rat breeders are usually no more expensive than a pet shop and actually know all about the animals - the rubbish I've been told in pet shops is untrue!

And yes, everyone* knows someone who bought a rat from a pet shop and they lived til they were 23 and never got sick, just like my old granny who smoked 20 fags a day and lived 'til she was 107...

• disclaimer - ok, not everyone.

CatThiefKeith

Echoing mean Please never consider keeping a single rat. It's so cruel, especially once you see how much they love each other! Pairs or trios (or more) are best. We really regret not getting the third available rat that our breeder had when we got our boys. We actually have four now, girls and boys in separate cages. We're hoping to get two more boys next year and have four in a cage :)

I can't compare rats and ferrets tbh, but rats can be trained. It's not easy and requires persistence. We stopped training our boys once we got the girls (no time) but we had them standing, spinning and almost 'walking' within, at most, 4 weeks of 'training' for five/ten minutes daily.

Get a pair of rats (or three) from a good breeder (look up the NFRS website for a list) and they'll be sociable. We rescued two girls and they aren't really sociable. One girl is lovely on her own terms, but she nips. A lot. Her name is Nibbles htough The other girl is very shy, we got them in March and it took us six weeks to get her to climb onto DPs arm. She's still very tetchy with us and it's so slowly going, whereas Nibbles has been even more nippy recently.

Our boys took a week or so to get used to us, but they were ever so curious about us and wanted to walk all over us, just wouldn't let us pick them up at first. Now they drop like rag dolls when we pick them up, it's very amusing

Rats are prone to respiratory illnesses though, so you need to find a vet before you consider getting them who is experienced in caring for rats and look up the first symptoms for Upper Respiratory Infections (commonly abbreviated to URIs), we were paranoid at first and took them to the vet/called them often, then discovered that our boys were actually allergic to the substrates we were trying. They're expensive to get treated too so have some cash on hand for that, one of our boys poked the other ones eye out, cost us £100 to get that sorted. Very very rare and freak accident though! If you got females you'd have to talk to the vet and do your own research about getting them spayed as they have a high chance of getting mammary tumours if they are not spayed compared to if they are, but it's personal choice.

I had a couple as a teenager - brilliant! Though one was a little "unpredictable". Other was tame as anything, loved a nice warm shower and blow dry so as to limit the stink
Both walked nicely on leads for my paper round.... I accept it might have looked odd.
Sadly DP has refused to get me another

We looked after three ferrets for a friend once. A male and two girls. The boy was placid and liked to be worn as a scarf but he stunk. The two girls were much more lively. He neglected to tell us they were still babies and not 'trained' so I ended up having to drug them with Ferretone which is a bit like ferret catnip every time I wanted to put them back in their cages.

I enjoyed them though, they were so playful and clever. They LOVED to come out and play with me. We kept them in the heated garage, partly because of the smell and partly because of the scent marking issue with the male, and we had nothing stored in there at the time so I let them roam on the floor with toys and tubes etc. They're very cheeky and funny. It's especially amusing watching them do their 'war dance' when they get going.

They bit playfully, since they were just babies, but it hurts. They have horrid little teeth. I recommend gloves whilst training.

Females are more giddy and harder to train, males are sweeter and lazier, but reek and scent mark everything. I'm unsure if they mark after being neutered. Both can be great pets if you get an animal suited to you with a good personality.

I've had rats before and I loved them so much. I'm very rodenty though. I've kept almost every kind of rodent. I think they're ace when handled enough and cared for right. I have hamsters now, and they're lovely too. YY to never keeping lone rats though. No amount of human interaction is enough. They might seem to be thriving but they'll be bored and sad and have nobody to cuddle at night

Make sure she wears tight jeans and hard toed shoes during training too... They have a weird foot fetish in my experience and will try sneak up your trouser leg when you aren't looking.

We have ferrets, and adore them!! Soo playful, and not at all nippy, although you do get some what are of cause, we've always managed to get them where they would be useless for hunting . And lovely human company, they need space, proper ferret food and also LOTs of toys to keep them busy. My husband always describes having a ferret is like having a playful kitten for 12 odd years whenever anyone asks.

Yes Kate, they must be mated or get spay quickly before first season.

I am a vet and I have kept ferrets for many years. Ferrets are really clever and can make great pets, but they do smell, they cannot be housetrained, they do need to be neutered or otherwise prevented from coming in heat if female, as described above, they will escape easily and they have no instinct to stay around if they do. They are not necessarily prone to bite, but do tend to be if they haven't been handled much. They are really not very similar to rats. Ferrets are mustelids, so related to otters, badgers, weasels, and less closely to cats and dogs (all are carnivores.) They can live ten years or more. Rats are rodents and rarely see their third birthdays. A rat is probably a better bet for most children. You can train ferrets to walk on harnesses: they really enjoy fancy cages with room to climb, they are never scared and always keen to explore new things. A rat can be trained to do tricks quite easily (there are some great videos on YouTube); ferrets tend not to be very trainable at all. If you can visit an agricultural show you can certainly find someone with ferrets who can talk to you about them, or often the RSPCA or other rehoming charities will have ferrets available. You should certainly have at least 2 ferrets if you get any, as otherwise they will get very bored. Personally I would think carefully before getting ferrets - as suggested above, rats will do many of the same things but not live as long if your daughter gets bored, and not smell as much! On the other hand, if she's really up for it they can be a lot of fun.

Thanks for the recommendation on where you can meet ferrets - I don't know anyone who keeps them in RL, and meeting, maybe handling, some might be a good step.

12 years?! Wow, I never knew that! I'm gutted that rats only live for two/three years. I assumed that ferrets would be 5/6 years.

If anybody wants to meet rats I'm always happy to introduce my two boys to kids, we're based in Brighton :) Though I warn you, they like tea ;)

Great advice from Alice & others above.

I'd definitely agree with getting two ferrets because they need company & they will play together. If you don't get a well-socialised rescue ferret I would recommend getting them young. Ours were four months when we got them & they can be a bit nippy. If you get them as young kits you can train them not to bite, & this is important as ferret bites hurt and leave scars

My sons have two ferrets, neutered males from the same litter. We've had them about four or five years now & my boys were about 14 or 15 when we got them. I wouldn't recommend them for young children at all because of the biting risk.

Our ferrets live outdoors in a large custom built hutch, and they also have a separate outdoor run. Ferrets need large hutches with lots of space to play. They are very lively when awake, then they'll curl up together & sleep for hours. They can escape from anywhere, so their runs need to be very secure. Ours have got out a couple of times, but we know where they like to go so have always managed to track them down so far. One likes to take off across the garden & hide under the shed, the other one runs about for a bit then heads back into his run when he's tired! One of them will actually come to his name when called.

Ferrets are very entertaining, they are like playful kittens which never grow up. They are curious & determined little creatures, and very clever - DS1 has taught his ferret to use the cat flap - and they love toys, especially the occasional bowl of water to splash in. DS1 walks around with them draped round his neck like little furry scarves. I occasionally allow them in the house if it's too wet for their outdoor run - we have to secure all the kitchen cupboard doors or they'll open them & disappear behind the units.

Lots of people don't like the distinctive ferret smell, but I don't mind it. I think because our boys are neutered they don't smell so strongly, but it's a warm, earthy, musky smell. I wouldn't want them in the house all the time, though.

On the subject of walking a ferret, you can't walk a ferret on a harness, it'll walk you! You have to go in the direction the ferret wants to go, and that's assuming you can get the harness on the ferret without losing a finger.

One more little tip. Ferrets need their nails clipping regularly. It used to take three of us to do it until we discovered that ferrets adore cod liver oil. One little drop on his tummy & you can do anything with a ferret as he'll be so busy licking it off he won't even notice he's having his nails clipped.

Sorry about the essay - I'm sure you can tell I'm quite fond of our ferrets

They sound lovely DramaAlpaca

It never occurred to me that you might get rescue ferrets who were knownto be well socialised. I don't think we have space for a large outside run, though we ought to be able to manage roomy cage. I daren't mention the furry living scarf to DD - she'd be in heaven at the idea (I mentioned the idea of a ferret going up a trouser leg and she sounded unconcerned - indeed thought it might be nice).

Meet Chewbacca the ferret. If you're wondering how he ended up on top of the freezer, he climbed up the back .

Believe me, meditrina, a ferret going up your trouser leg is not nice, it bloody hurts! I have the scars to prove it

If the ferrets are inside, we all walk around with our trousers tucked into our socks. We just have to remember to untuck them before we go out or we get some very funny looks.

Add message | Report | Message poster CorusKate Fri 30-May-14 19:42:46
I'm serious about the females dying if they don't have sex BTW. If you don't spay them, they need to be mated every time they come on heat or they die.
.........

Well that would explain why the ferret faced midget my ex had an affair with has slept with every man in town- she's afraid of dying! ;)

For anyone interested in adopting a ferret who is in Wales

swansearspcadpgsextra.blogspot.co.uk

Unfortunately we're not in Wales.

DD did think that people with a penis might not like trouser ferrets...

In America quite a lot of people keep ferrets in the house; it's rarer here, because of the smell. I don't mind the smell much either, but it does linger. If you walk around with a ferret on your arm for a while you will smell it on the garment until it is washed. Their faeces always have a soft toothpaste like consistency, and as I said above they cannot be housetrained. They tend to poo and wee at the same time. In a hutch they usually use one corner, which isn't too bad, but if you let them out in the house they will use random corners of the room when they feel like it, and then run through it, and then disappear into the 3cm diameter hole behind the sink which leads down into the space under the floor joists until they feel like coming out again, and there will be nothing you can do about it. Seriously, they are amazingly good at making a mess and at finding small escape holes, and they are not ever bothered by new and unfamiliar environments, they just regard the whole universe as a challenging assault course.

I've had pet ferrets, a boy and girl. They were both neutered so it lessened their smell.
I trained them to use the litter tray, they loved going for walks on their harnesses and like some cats they had a liking for the clean washing basket as well as warm laps :) I bought them hammocks to sleep in and had a climbing mast for them to use.
They are full of energy and have a daily 'daft half hour' which was often comical to watch idiots
I was lucky in that neither of mine were vicious, when they were younger they both did like to bite but we tried to teach them by tapping the nose with a finger and saying no - if they persisted they went back in the cage.
I can't say if it worked or if they just naturally stopped doing it.
I really would love another but my cat is evil and would try to kill it, he won't even tolerate another cat :(

And yes, DramaAlpaca is absolutely right that you don't want them going up your trousers. There is a reason they are known as anklebiters in some circles. Even a tame well-handled ferret will sometimes get all excited if out on the floor and start zipping about as if possessed and biting things, such as ankles, especially bare ankles of children or old ladies in thin tights. My mother has never really felt the same about ferrets since Baldrick got her that time...

"rat or ferret? Bear in mind that "main" owner is girl who wants to race it and teach it to navigate obstacle/agility courses"

I've no experience of ferrets but adore rats and kept many in my youth. They can also be taught tricks and

Alice mine were house trained. I used a cat litter tray hidden in the corner behind a chair in the living room which they used and another in the cupboard under the sink which they had access to from a little hole at the back of the unit. They did have preference on the litter though - they wouldn't go in if was the stones, it had to be the soft pellet stuff.

I had 2 ferrets while I was a teen . They make brilliant pets. Smart, easy to train (can be litter tray trained) and great for getting rid of any slug problems. They do smell though, to the extent of when I moved in with my now husband I had to leave the rather old remaining ferret at my parents as my now husband refused to let him move in.
They are so playful, I really miss having them. Yes you can walk them and it is good fun. I have now settled for guinea pigs. Not quite the same character but no smell! PM me if you'd like info on keeping them.