>Please understand I love my ferret greatly and understand the
>responsibilites and tasks that go with ferret ownership and am prepared to
>deal with it, I just disagree with the labels that are out there because I
>see no evidence to support it.
 
Not sure how intelligent your ferret is?  Well, he's smart enough to change
his habits to get you to respond to him WHEN he wants attention.  I say
that constitutes being pretty darn intelligent.  You mention a cage, but
not how much time he gets to spend out of the cage each day.  Nor do you
mention how much is in the cage to stimulate his interest and keep him
from being bored.  Ferrets do bore easily.
 
As far as walking through urine - well, you and the ferret see urine in two
completely different ways.  To animals, especially animals with a highly
developed sense of smell, urine can be like a calling card or marker.  It
says "I was here," or "This space is MINE."  Any other animals coming
around and smelling those tracks will immediately get the message and also
know a little something about the ferret as well.  As a human, you see
urine simply as a liquid waste product with absolutely no good use once it
is eliminated from the body.
 
It is important to understand animal behavior and psychology in general and
species specific in particular.  For almost all mammals, urine is a very
important tool used to identify their passing through an area and a tool
to be used for marking a territory.  It is also an important tool used to
change the territorial markings or other animals.  Watch the behavior of
a dog being walked through a neighborhood - the dog will sniff with great
interest any other location another dog has used and often then urinate in
exactly the same place.  Two things are going on - the first is that the
dog is getting information about the other dog/dogs that have used the same
location; and the second is the dog is changing the territorial markers.
It is not uncommon to see one dog stop several times to urinate in
different locations.  Ferrets are no different.
 
Once an animal's behavior and psychology is understood, cross socialization
can take place.  The human caregiver can teach the ferret what is socially
acceptable behavior from a human standpoint, and at the same time, the
human can learn to understand the motivations behind behaviors.  Things
like "Why do ferrets bite?" stop being a mystery.  Ferrets bite for a
variety of reasons - dominance, anger, pain, and as invitations to play.
It is up to the human caregiver to identify which biting pattern is which
and act accordingly.
 
Recently, a poster has asked about why her ferret makes so much noise at
5 a.m. - the answer is simple.  The ferret is awake and bored.  He wants
attention and his human companion is in the same room and sleeping.  Again,
it is important to understand the ferret behavior to understand what is
really going on.  Humans and ferrets view sleep differently.  Ferrets sleep
when they are tired - there is no set time of the day.  They wake when they
are rested.  It is as simple as that.  Humans, on the other hand, generally
sleep in a set or routine block of time.  The hours from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.
are for sleep (for example).  Ferrets don't understand that concept.  By
making noise and waking their human, they are inviting the human to play
and pay attention to them.  And, if the human does, then the ferret has
achieved his goals.  Again, pretty intelligent behavior.
[Posted in FML issue 3061]