Folks who meet my ferrets generally note something like "Hey! Yours
don't stink!" Nope. Because I barely wash them. Washing them over and
over makes their skin feel like it's under assault, and they secrete
more smelly weases grease to protect it. It's a vicious circle. Wash
ferret, ferret smells *worse.* So ferret gets washed, again....and
smells even more.

Mine get two official baths a year, and that's mostly to wash dust and
dander out of their fur. Once in the middle of winter, and once in the
middle of summer. I put several inches of warm water into the tub, and
let them walk, swim, jump, and snorkel. It's otter time for weasels. I
take a small dab of hoomin shampoo (nothing fancy, I use ordinary
formula Suave) about the size of a pea, and lather the weasels. Just
once, they don't need lather, rinse, repeat! I rinse them by pouring
plastic cups of the warm water over them. Then I let them do their "I'M
WET!" nervous breakdown dance in some dry towels on the bathroom floor.

Aside from that, I don't wash them and they smell *good.* A little like
stale Frito chips, that's it. I find their bedding smells much more
strongly than they do. It gets washed a *lot* more often, in plain old
Tide with bleach on a hot water setting. I scoop their cage poop every
other day (Can't wait to have a Ferret Room, again!) and when you walk
into my house you can't tell with your nose that I have ferrets.

When I first had ferrets I used all sorts of fancy ferret shampoos and
de-odorizers because those products came with the ferrets I rescued, I
assumed that I was supposed to use them. My ferrets smelled like little
nasty chemical refineries, and their bedding smelled even worse. I
noticed that once I ran out of those products my business smelled
*much* better. I haven't used them since. Chuck all of that stuff,
keep the bedding freshly changed and clean, and you will notice a
substantial difference! Your nose will thank you, and so will your
ferrets.

Alexandra in MA

[Posted in FML 5419]