Dear Ferret Folks-
 
I will never be able to come close to thinking up the wonderful things
that Bob Church does for ferret enrichment, but I have stumbled across
something wonderful, easy, and cheap.  Like many of us on the FML, I take
a few prescription medicines on a regular basis.  (The world is safer
that way, in my case.) Anyhow, I wind up with lots of those little empty
brown bottles.  Because I have a two year old nephew who comes over to
visit quite a bit, mine come with the white, oversized child proof caps.
 
The thing about those childproof caps is that they don't really make for
a an airtight fit.  Good luck getting the caps *off* if you are tired or
in a hurry, they sure do keep the pills in.  But they don't keep the air
out, they are kind of loose...and that got me to thinking.  What if I
put interesting smelling things into those bottles, and gave them to the
ferrets?  Would they be interested?  Would they be able to bite the caps
off, chew through the plastic?
 
I started putting things like exotic smelling herbal tea bags in the
bottles, and capping them.  Little jingle bells.  Small glass beads that
rattle.  Cloves for baking.  I put a cotton ball in the bottom of one,
and popped a gel capsule of fish oil supplement into it.  Another cotton
ball, and a few drops of lavender oil for the bath.  A few chocolate toll
house bits.  A few pinches of oregano.
 
Well, Puma absolutely adores them.  As soon as I put them into the ferret
room (sometimes I bury them in the rice box or the dirt box) she MUST
pick them up and stash them.  She picks them up by the caps as if they
were the most precious things in the world, and waddles off with them, to
stash them inside the aluminum dryer vent tubes.  Shake any tube, you can
hear the rattle inside.  I call them her babies.
 
I've been giving the bottles for about six months now, and in that time
I have never found one chewed open, splintered, cap off, etc.  I will
retire ones that I recognize to be "old", and replace them with something
new and aromatic.  Puma values the ones that only make noise, but she
will try to bite me if I attempt to take away the aromatic ones, they are
so terribly important to her.
 
Ping is not interested.  Now, Ping's jaws open quite a bit wider than
Puma's, and are considerably stronger.  I suspect that if a ferret is
going to bite one of those bottles open, a male is going to have a better
shot at it.  If you try giving them at home to your little guys, pay
attention!  Just because Puma can't open one, doesn't mean it can't be
done.  But this might be a fun thing for you to experiment with, under
supervision.  Finally, something to DO with all the little brown bottles!
 
Good luck--
Alexandra in MA
[Posted in FML issue 5039]