Yesterday Bryan Hall <[log in to unmask]> wondered:
>is a Lap Ferret made, or is he/she born?
 
Made, at least in our case.  I used to read stories on the FML about cuddly
ferrets, and I thought "Well *that's* obviously not the same kind of ferret
I have!" My guys never even slowed down, much less held still to be cuddled.
 
Now some of my fuzzits crawl into bed with me and settle down for the night,
all cuddled up in my arms.  This is partly because I've encouraged cuddling,
and partly because they're a bit older now, and therefore a tad calmer.
 
I found it helpful to play with them until they got sleepy, and then I would
see if I could convince anybody to fall asleep on my shoulder and come to
bed with me. I would also sometimes steal a sleeping ferret from the drawer
and take him to bed. (At first, the key to success seemed to be to take his
blankie to bed with me, too.)
 
>Babar Lindelund <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>Subject: free roam
>I have noticed that a lot of ferret owners seem to let their >ferrets have
>free roam.... Ferret proofing isn't my problem it's the fact that they
>don't seem to want to use the litter pans when they are out.  Even in the
>room where they do roam they forget to use their pans.
 
I had this same problem when I gave fuzzies the run of my bedroom during the
day.  I was already using the standard litter-training techniques when I was
home, but what was I to do when I was at work and the little rascals were
left alone, pooping on various parts of the bedroom floor?
 
What I did was to make every place in the bedroom a bed, except for the
litter box.  :-) I got a million old sheets, t-shirts, sweat shirts, etc,
and placed them *everywhere* on the floor where pooping had been a
temptation.  The best blankets are the ones fuzzies have already been
sleeping in, because those ones smell like bed.  Cleaned up any sites of sin
with lots of vinegar, and piled tons of cuddly stuff there instead.  Once
the desired behaviour was achieved, I slowly began decreasing the number of
blankets, so that now the room looks mostly normal again, and our pooping
problem is solved.  Hope this helps!  Send me a note if you need more
detailed info.
 
cmc
--
Christine Code           and ferrets Madeline, Theodore,
Vancouver, CANADA        Kai, and Augustus.
[log in to unmask]            http://www2.portal.ca/~cmc/
Ferret Facts and Fun:    http://www2.portal.ca/~cmc/ferrets/info/
[Posted in FML issue 1751]