Hi Laura,
 
We've had two "climber" ferrets.  Our first one, Grendel, is a male who
thought bookshelves were an especially fun challenge.  He'd manage to
get on a bookshelf about 4 or 5 feet up.  I still don't know how he did
it since the shelves are too smooth for claws, and only open on the
front.  He'd work his way along the shelf, one book at a time.  He'd
use his head to carefully fling just one book over the edge, watch it
fall and crash on the ground, maybe give a little chuckle or dance, and
move on to the next book.  Thankfully, he got bored with that game
after a few months.  Grendel is still a climber, but after a year of
discipline, he's now less blatant about it, and only climbs onto the
shelves, desk, or countertops when he thinks there's something
especially valuable, tasty, or flingable there.
 
Miss Lily is a climber too.  She tends not to wreak as much havoc when
she gets to the top of whatever she's climbing, but we still
consistently lightly discipline her and take her down when she's
climbed somewhere she's not supposed to be.  The one compromise we've
made with her is that she is allowed to climb the sliding wire basket
set (Elfa(tm)) that we store clothes in, and sleep in a basket.  She's
taught all her other ferret friends to sleep there too, so now Grendel
and some otherwise non-climbers, Gilbert, Boomer, and Diesel climb up
and use her sleeping baskets too.
 
Besides the chance to tell my silly ferret stories, I actually meant to
write to recommend a collar with a bell to you and everyone else who
keeps ferrets.  I've seen several different types that all seem to work
fine. There are several benefits.
 
  1. You are less likely to step on or otherwise squish your little
friends around the house since they can be pretty sneaky otherwise.
  2. If your ferret accidentally gets out, a collar with a bell can
help you in locating him or her.
  3. A collar lets uninformed people know that the ratly-looking thing
hopping up towards them isn't really a rabid or deranged rat, but
perhaps someone's pet.
  4. When your ferret stops doing her bad thing and streaks off to some
hiding place as soon as you get up to discipline her, you have some
hope of finding her.
 
I think Grendel's collar has actually been useful for all 4 of these
reasons, but then again, he's a problem child.
 
Oh, be sure to make collars loose enough so you can slide them on over
their heads.  We have to replace collars every few months as they lose
or outgrow them, but the peace of mind is worth it.  To answer Tracy's
question, we keep the collars on 24 hours a day, but the harnesses for
walking are only on when we go outside.
 
 
Happy Ferret Keeping!
Dennis, Angelique, Raven, and 11 "Rare Tibetan Swamp Mongooses"
 
 
From Laura L'Heureux's earlier posting:  "She particularly enjoys
getting up there and digging at something until the noise drives me
absolutely out of my mind and then stopping as soon as I get up to find
her so that I can't figure out where she is without tearing the whole
closet apart."
 
[Posted in FML issue 0660]