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?

they are smelly, very smelly.
they have a strong jaw and can bit really hard.
their food smells.
they shed.
they are not low maintainance at all.
they are prone to ear infections.

they are funny though and can learn lots of tricks.

This is the rat video I watch again and again:

5 very talented rats :)

Ours also use a litter tray, not entirely reliably but they do try! They tend to use the same corner, so we put newspaper down in their preferred corner & they use that. My teens have been well trained to clear up as & when required.

We have also learned the hard way never to let them loose near house plants or DH's newly planted seed trays

It's true that the smell of a ferret lingers on clothes & on your hands & they love rolling around on clean laundry if they are allowed to do so I'm looking at you, DS1

"A challenging assault course" is a great way of describing how a ferret sees the world.

Our ferrets love being hand fed cat biscuits, which they then run off with and stash in a corner to save for later

& I forgot to add that Drama, Chewbacca is goregous! Squeeing here!

Easter

I hope it's ok to hijack the thread for a bit but my sister had 2 lovely rat brothers who were very close and one died last week (not sure what happened, he was just old I guess) and the remaining brother seems quite sad. He's fine when out and playing around in my sister's room etc but otherwise he just sort of sits in his little hammock looking forlorn :(.

Sister thinks he's too old to be introduced to another rat (can be a bit grumpy). Anything we can do to cheer him up a bit? his health is declining due to age so don't think he'll be around much longer. All very sad

Thank you Pixie, I'll give him a cuddle from you

Hijack away lilolola and I hope someone can help.

If you have a pet that is best kept with company, I really don't know what happens when you have to deal with bereavement. I can remember how awful if was when one of my pair of guinea pigs died when I was a girl.

Maybe a shorter lived pet is better for that rather grim reason, or someone who is happy as sole member of that species living with a bunch of humans.

I had a ferret as a teenager, he was bloody lovely and very tame. He was a rescue ferret as he was about to be drowned . I knew nothing about ferrets although at the time I had 3 rats and loads of other (rescue) animals at home much to my mum's delight. We had him neutered as male entire ferrets do smell quite strongly, it's similar to the smell of a UTI - nice. Neutering them does help a bit. He loved going to the park on his harness and never bit anyone.
His favourite food was a raw egg and his was a lazy bugger who took ages to wake up in the morning . I loved him . I want another one!

That film of the Canadian rats is really good. Thank you.

"5 very talented rats"
Wow, Pixie that's a great video! Oh god, if I was in a position to have a few rats I would in a shot. Then again I've had so many animals over the years and I can't handle the heartache when they die any more

Another vote here for rats. They are clever, and lovely, and cheeky little thieves. DD's Monster high dolls have been pillaged for all their accessories. And giving a hard-boiled egg to two rats and watching them try to man rat-handle it down their ladders is the funniest thing I have ever seen. Having said that drama's ferret looks adorable!

They have no urinary schpincter so they constantly dribble and stink. And they need handled regularly to be friendly.

A rat is a great pet, they are really clever and can be trained.

lilola Could she introduce him to a pair? Poor thing :( This is why we want to get another pair next year, so that our boys don't grow old and end up alone :( Though we're going to face this problem with our girls in the next 18 months so I don't really know.

drama :)

Livid It was that video that made me decide to get rats. Our boys are nowhere near as talented, but they are the most squishy, adorable pets I've ever had I remember being devastated when Howl lost his eye and trying not to cry at work when the vet told me that he'd gotten through the op okay! He is the most placid, gorgeous thing :)

down I haven't tried a hard-boiled egg yet! I have had my boys stealing my pistachios, in shells, and trying to eat those this evening though. Haku takes the ones with big-ish gaps, eats what he can and then dumps them, then Howl comes along, breaks the shell and tries to eat the kernel before Haku steals them back

Ahhhhhhhhhh that Talented Rat Video (they are very bribeable aren't they?)

My DD puts her 2 male guinea-pigs on the kitchen floor, walks away (I watch them) comes back , and.................................... they are exactly where she left them.
They sit nose-to-rump like the yin-yang sign "I got your back Dad" "Yep, me too son"

Athletic and acrobatic they are not

pixie if you crack the shell slightly they realise there is something delicious inside. I will try Pistachios, haven't tried our rats with those they are too busy eating miniature plastic mobile phones Have you giving them a whole cob of corn? they act like a couple of clowns moving a piano.

Corn on the cob is hilarious We put it on the top floor, they knock it off, then try to get it back to the top floor We had a wine rack in our girls cage for a while (until the destroyed it) and watching Ruby trying to get a corn on the cob up that was hilarious, she couldn't work ou why she was getting stuck, then would let go of it to see why she wasn't getting anywhere, which obviously made it fall back to the bottom

We give them all sorts of nuts in shells, walnuts are brilliant, Ruby is the only one who can get into those within an hour or two, the rest will take days given the chance! Files their nails though, which saves me trying to trim them!

corus Howl and Haku do that M&M thing with peas

Hullo all,

We're just going to move this thread to the Super Furry Animals topic at the request of the OP.

Thank you!

I asked for it to be moved, as I'm far from sure what (if anything) we might add to the family, but I'm sure there won't be any additions before the summer hols are over and I thought I'd want to look at all these lovely helpful posts again then.

This has probably been posted before but just look at these cute rats with their teddy bears. Awww!

Oh they are lovely Livid I haven't seen the Rats'n'Teddies but it is worthy of another airing

I love the way they curl up and cuddle into a weeny space .

I love rats with teddies. They are so fucking cute! I may have to make my mischief some when we get a decent camera!

DD has spent large chunks of today googling "ferret rescue" and is utterly convinced that a juvenile brought into a household with a girl her age will become her best friend/playmate and never bite her (she's supremely unconcerned about whether it bites anyone else).