Karen I REALLY enjoyed your post. I know you probably were not trying
to be funny, but with a long time of many, many ferrets coming through
our rescue I can attest that it is a rare ferret in deed that enjoys
taking baths and your very apt description of events at your house was
refreshing and amusing. Even ferrets that enjoy playing in a shower or
swimming in a tub object to being soaped up and scrubbed down.

I can just see your little guys faces turned up to you like flowers in
the morning dew asking for scritching, scratching and bathing - it is
marvelous.

You said one thing that I would like to offer an opinion on and that is
your comment that it is not good for ferrets to be bathed often. Now I
really don't know what problems could arise from daily baths - maybe a
vet would know if daily baths would cause a particular adverse health
issue, but weekly baths are not necessarily bad for ferrets. The reason
we tell people to bathe their ferrets less and wash their bedding more
has to do with their musk odor control.

To simplify the explanation - Ferrets have sebaceous glands (oil
glands) all over their bodies just as people and other animal do. The
particular odor of an animal, the ferret's musky odor, comes with this
body oil. When you wash your ferret you strip the oil from his/her coat
and skin so the glands produce more oil to replace what you've stripped
away. The glands produce even without bathing, but when you bath, just
as when you wash your own hair, oil production increases to replace
what you've lost (washed away). That's why the more often you wash your
own hair the faster it appears oily and so the more often you need to
wash it to keep it clean looking.

Now if you don't bathe your ferret often (and even if you do) the oil
will rub off of their coats and bodies and onto their bedding, your
carpet, bedding, couches etc. This oil/musk is concentrated most where
they spend the most time - in their bedding.

Many people do not care for the strong musk odor of ferrets when they
do smell strongly of musk even if they like the gentle musk odor of a
clean but not frequently bathed ferret; so the rule of thumb is the
less you bathe your ferret the less strong the musk odor UNLESS their
bedding is not kept clean. So we also recommended that while people
bathe their ferrets less that they wash their bedding more. There's
more to it than just that, but that's it in a nutshell.

So if you don't care that your ferrets are watching you bathe and
asking for their own bath there's no medical or health reason I can
think of that would prevent this as long as you're not dropping soap
or shampoo in the mouths or eyes.

As for the door - all I know that you can do is place barriers of some
sort. Home building stores like Home Depot or Lowes carry very heavy
plastic or vinyl sheets that can be purchased and cut to size to fit
on the floor in doorways and extend beyond the doorway on each side.
Some ferrets are not deterred by these barriers and simply move back
off of the plastic/vinyl and begin digging on carpet further out. You
can also place barriers of Lexan or other materials, even baby gates,
in doorways to stop them from getting to a door, but the door frame
would still be at risk. The surest way to stop a ferret from digging
at a door while you are on the other side is to either let them in,
do as you are doing and leave the door open, or put them in a cage
until you are finished disappearing behind the intrusive door.

If you come up with more creative ideas please share them; I'm sure
there are many people who would like new/other ideas.

Vicki Montgomery
Tricks and Treats Rescue
Greater Houston/Galveston Texas
713-472-6599  [log in to unmask] 

Click to feed shelter animals:
http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=3

[Posted in FML 7375]