As well Ferrets never reveal if they are seriously hurt. They have been known to appear seemingly normal with broken limbs. Hense why they actually have more vet trips then almost any other animal.
Good point, this very true. You will probably not notice anything wrong... till its to late. So being paranoid is good, noticing small details will mean a run to the vet. == $$$
A ferret is nothing like a dog or a cat. Nothing against cats or dogs, I had both and right now I only have 3 cats left. I'm about to become a father and we are putting pets on hold for now. I'm expecting it won't take long before I get "requests" for a pet in the near future
Ferrets take a bit more of your time... and that's an understatement. A ferret will happily jump into its own cage, cuddle up inside and go to sleep for 15+ hours and wake up again when you get home. Then it will demolish it's cage to get out and get some play time. If you have two ferrets or more this will still happen, they want out and go out exploring / play. You can never leave a stranger (to ferrets), child or any other animal alone with them. The room it self and its inventory will be fair game once they are out.
/ramble on
Also someone mentioned they being illegal in California, this is very true (although I know a few people in Cali that have ferrets still). Ferrets more or less are just as domesticated as cats and dogs. Just as much even, although we have the polecats and the black-footed ferret they are completely domesticated. Mentioned before might look like some ferret breeds, they are not the same. In the past we thought it was a great idea to take em along to foreign shores and take care of the rabbit trouble we started in countries like New Zealand. (Getting a ferret there is a big deal....)
After they got done eating the rabbits... (probably way before) they started on the local fauna. A Kiwi (the bird, not the fruit)(and many other species) never saw a ferret or a polecat... It got messy. Ferrets although domesticated was prized for it ability to still hunt, very much like cats. When I said, messy back there.. its closer to "massacre" and they rampaged around till hunted and stopped. Still this day in many countries people take their ferrets out hunting rabbits, they are mostly used for flushing out the prey into nets. But a big part of the training is learning the ferret not kill the rabbit and just flushing it out. These are epic feats for mortals like me... I never tried to learn my ferrets tricks. Special breeder permits are needed in some countries to keep ferrets, they can be very damaging to the local wildlife if they escape.
Some hybrids are out there.. polecats that bred with ferrets. They are bigger, stronger and way, way more aggresive. They can connect with a human but often only one and it will be a tedious (often painful, their bite will hit bone) process. They often consider everyone else free-game. I'm generalizing here... but anyone ever interested in getting a ferret as a pet should never take a hybrid home! Don't *bloody* do it!
Also, when they yawn at you... they are showing you are the dominant one around. When you hold them and they do so, its almost always a sign of submission. (Disclaimer, shoving your big nose into their somewhat limited FOS is not advised at this time, it will scare the bejezusoutoftem unless you know the ferret very well. Also they are lazy little bastards, they just might be bored and sleepy
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Also one interested in ferrets should looking up the "Ferret War dance" .. enough vids around showing it. It should give you a good few laughs. I'm pointing out a lot of "Keep in Mind" things here... But they are loveable little gits that have you rolling on the ground laughing just as much.
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Topic: Considering getting a pet ferret. (Read 3596 times)