I've been reading this list for a while now and I have to speak up. What
the bleep are you people going on about?!? I've had ferrets for over
forty years now and I've yet to have a ferret NOT live beyond 10 years.
Here's what I do with my ferrets. By the way, for the past 10 years or
so all my ferrets are 'rescues' from people I consider to be nincompoops.
You know the type, some of you are reading this email! You get a ferret
and then do NOT learn all about it. AND you force the ferret to conform
to HUMAN conditions... keeping the hours YOU keep because you like to
watch your ferrets play. "Ain't they cu-uuute!" And you don't feed 'em
right, because that is too much work and you keep them in CAGES. FOR
SHAME.
The ferrets have the run of the house with the exception of the laundry
room, because all else is ferret-proofed. but they sleep in my bedroom at
night in one of the two 3-decker cages with multiple hammocks in each and
small cardboard boxes with old sheets/blankies under the bed (I have a big
4-poster bed with lots of room underneath). I feed the ferrets ZUPREEM
food as their 'staple' dry food, because it is 40% protein. I feed them
cornish game hens that I raise myself (I live on a small 'country estate'
of 14 acres). Once a week I kill two of the hens, pluck em and then pull
some of the raw meat/organs off, grind it up and feed it to the ferrets.
They LOVE it. The rest of the meat and bones I cook until soft ... about
a day and a half, then grind it all up and feed a serving of that to the
ferrets every other day.
BY THE WAY, I DO use clumping litter and those pine pellets that come in
the green bags. However, the ferrets only go into the litter to do their
business... there isn't any littler in the bottom of their cages, just a
lot of old sheets. They all go in the litter boxes too. Once a week I
give the ferrets an inch long strip of hairball remedy and in the winter,
I give them warm homemade chicken soup in the morning, with a dash of cod
liver oil in it. For 'treats', I NEVER give them raisins, I give them
cucumber, banana, peaches, and only VERY infrequently. They also eat mice
and such critters that are stupid enough to come into their play room,
which is a big chicken coop close to the house (a refurbished chicken coup
with a dirt floor... they have access to and from it via a screened runway
which a carpenter built for me running from the bedroom window.
The 'dust' from the clumping litter doesn't affect ferrets AT ALL, or it
would affect my ferrets and it does NOT. It is how human beings treat
ferrets that affects them. All my ferrets, with the exception of
'rescues' have never had their scent glands removed, for the simple reason
that you can't remove all their scent glands anyway, and besides... that
is part of the ferret... their scent. All my ferrets have thick glossy
fur until they get to about the age of 9 then it starts to get
'coarser'... that is just 'age'. I could separate the older ferrets from
the younger ones, but why would I do that? They are all 'family'...
that's another thing, I've never had a ferret NOT be accepted into the
clan, though some abused ones or ones that were raised without ferret
companions, might take several months to assimilate. Until they do, they
can get beaten up a lot or do a lot of beating up, but eventually there
comes a day I find the 'bully' sleeping curled around one of the ferrets
it was bullying.
So if you are having problems... take a long hard look at YOURSELF...
generally, you will find the problem is 'user error'... nothing to do
with the temperment of the animal!
Ferret Mommy (and Horse Mommy and Parrot Mommy and Dog Mommy)
[Posted in FML issue 3742]
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