I have a female ferret named Nutmeg that has an odd behavior that is
leaving me at wits end.  She has a habit of trying to jump over the
barrier that keeps them in the room.  It sometimes seems like she's
throwing herself at the barrier.  She'll change it up by digging up the
carpet and scratching the barrier.  The thing about this is that this
behavior means different things.
 
1. I'm hungry
2. I'm bored
3. I'm tired
4. I'm cranky and tired
5. I want something, but I don't know what it is
6. or I want to play stop sleeping!
 
I usually go through this list several times a day.  I offer food, I try
to distract her, I curl her up in a ball and pet her, then I run out of
things to do.  This is extremely annoying, it's disturbing my early
morning sleep and I just don't know what to do for her.  I've noticed
that sometimes she needs some form of stimulation (play) to eat.  when I
put her in the cage she'll curl up and take a nap, but mostly she'll bite
and dig at the cage.  She's very smart but has O/C issues.  One of those
is belts.  When I pick her up the first thing she does is check my belt.
She's very demanding and taxing.  Does anyone have any ferrets like this
and what can I do what have you done to change this behavior?
 
I've tried to put the ferrets to bed in the cage, which they hate, but
they/she will wake me up earlier than I need to be.  I can't let them
out too early because they'll make too much noise rough-housing.  I live
upstairs and we can make noise 8am-10pm.  It's not easy shushing them
when they start to bounce off the walls.
 
Thank you I really need some solutions.
Michelle and The FuzzButts
[Posted in FML issue 5219]