Bob Church <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>They are not completely litterbox trainable.
 
I have to disagree with you Bob, as I have several who NEVER miss!!  I know
this is quite unbelievable to most of you, but there are such ferrets in
existence.  For the most part, they are kids who became my own personal
ferrets at a very young age.  My sweet little silver/mitt/badger named Beau
will even race from two room away to get to the litterbox to go potty!!
 
You have the best chance at this kind of "accident-free" co-existence with
ferrets if you start them young and remember that they have to go potty
within two minutes of waking up.  Training is not hard at all, you simply
wake them up or catch them immediately upon their waking (don't allow them
to wake up on their own and meander around for a bit) and take them out of
their cage and pet/cuddle/hold them (DO NOT put them down but hold them) for
a minute or so (usually until they get really 'squirmy') then put them into
the litterbox and close the cage door, while saying to them "go potty".  You
simply keep the cage door closed, not letting them out to play until they
"go potty" (you won't have to wait long).  With some ferrets you have to
keep putting them into the box since they have a greater desire to use
another spot in the cage, but they can be trained, too.  Once they
successfully "go potty" in the litter box, you immediately let them out and
hold them and praise them and tell them how good they are, then put them
down for a good romp.  With this method they are easily trained and they
also learn what "go potty" means.  The only disadvantage to this training is
that some are so smart that they "pretend" to go just to get out, in that
case, keep putting them into the box and repeating the command to "go
potty".  My Sugar still tries to "fake me out", and she's three years old
now.
 
Most ferrets (young ones that is, who have no ingrained bad habits) can be
trained in less than 3 days.  Older ferrets can take longer and some will
never be 100 percent "accurate" but it is an excellent method of training I
have found.  Ferrets who have the run of the house for several hours at a
time can forget their training, so it's best to limit their time out for
play, or make them take "potty breaks" in the cage.  Free-raoming ferrets
are the most difficult to train, and I wouldn't hold out alot of hope there.
 
Good luck!
 
Trish
Director, Ferrets First Rescue & Shelter
[Posted in FML issue 1916]