Some time back, somone posted a question asking how to make sure each
ferret got enough personal attention when you have lots of ferrets.  I was
thinking about this yesterday evening while I was sitting in the ferret
room, watching our twelve.
 
Every evening after cleaning the litter boxes and so on, I sit in the
ferret room for a while.  During that time, all of the ferrets come over to
me at least two or three times, and some more often.  I pick up each one,
give a tummy or head scratch, and at the first sign of wiggles, put the
ferret down.  Nameless Monster will go through this routine half a dozen
times.  He doesn't want to be held, but he definitely wants lots of brief
head rubs.  Killer and Hogley, if they're done playing, are happy to be
held and scratched indefinitely.  Joe doesn't want to be scratched at
all--he just wants a lap moment to see what I'm doing, then he's off again.
Chester doesn't want to be held, but wants his head scratching done while
he's in his comfy sleeping box.  Blackfoot doesn't want to be touched much,
so she gets a lap moment without head or tummy scratches--but even she
comes over for this.  Her interest is literally only for a few seconds, and
then she wants down.
 
We also have ferret games, of course, and for these the ferrets will 'pay
attention' longer, but it isn't me they're focusing on.  It's the ferret
blanket or the 'deadly' attacking dust rag that has their attention.
 
I'm not sure that one-one-one, extended 'quality time' is as critical to
a ferret as it is to a human.  I'm inclined to believe that multiple very
brief 'quality' seconds are more what the ferret needs.  I think that the
quality time idea is probably more for us humans than for the ferrets--mine
seem to be happy and well-socialized, and they clearly don't want extended
contact, just frequent 'quality seconds.'
[Posted in FML issue 2947]