Does anyone own a pet ferret?

[ratherastory]

Okay, flist, I know it's a weird question, but it's for SCIENCE!

Anyone out there with a ferret who'd be willing to chat with me about ferret habits/mannerisms/behaviours and the ins and outs of having a ferret as a pet?

Thanks in advance!

Comments

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, yay! I can use all the help I can get. Like I've been saying to others, I'm looking for all the stuff about owning and loving a ferret that's not the dry bare bones information I found on the internet, mostly what their behaviour is like under various circumstances. Basically, I'm trying to figure out what would happen to someone who mostly accidentally becomes a ferret owner for the first time and has no idea what they're getting into. :)

[fuflowers.livejournal.com]

I hope you can still use some ferret information; life got in the way this afternoon, so I'm a little slow to put my two cents in.

I see a lot of more technical info, so I thought I'd share some of my personal experience.

Each one has had a completely different personality --Trevor was exactly what you'd expect in a ferret --nosey, into everything, took anything that wasn't nailed to the ceiling --literally. I had telephone cords and power cords strung across my ceiling to keep him from trying to drag them to his secret hide away in the closet, where he would stash anything he "borrowed" or was given (the boy had an extensive beanie baby collection no one was allowed to touch but him. Even me. I tried to pick them up, he'd hiss at me and try to pull them away). He had this "I'm the Boss" attitude about him, even once he got sick and didn't get around as well. He got cancer (whoever said they get cancer a lot is, unfortunately, right) and had to be put to sleep, but even with a tumor large enough he couldn't use his hind legs, it only slowed him down a little, he would still drag himself all over the house and kept up fairly well with the others. (it's not like it sounds, his condition was being watched VERY VERY carefully)

Liam was the stereotypical "blonde" joke --the boy was just happy to wake up alive each day --I swear you could hear the, "I'm awake. I'm breathing. Alright. I'm awake. I'm breathing. Alright." going through his head most days. He was mellow and easy going, a definite follower. He did have a fascination with outlets, however, and liked to lick them. No matter what I did, I could not get him to stop...baby plug-in things he would work at until he pulled them out, bitter apple spray only drew him in to them more, he would weasel his way behind furniture to get to them. Like I said, he wasn't the smartest bulb in the light fixture, but he was love in a fuzzy little body.

Ferrets have a fascination with styrofoam-y, plastic-y things (think pipe wrap insulation and old fold-out foam couch beds) and I had a little girl who loved to eat it. The only one I've ever had who did, though. She also loved feet and would hide and ambush you from under things when you walked by. Toes, especially. Used to drive me nuts.

Ferrets tend to be directly underfoot, like kittens or small children and inlaws, and stepping on them with their fragile bones would be horrible, so I've given up shoes when inside and the ferrets are out. Hence them always underfoot. You develop this shuffle, where you scuff your feet rather than walk normally to avoid stepping on anyone. This, however, draws them in and the problem continues in an infiniate loop until one of you goes crazy --and you will always go crazy before the ferret does. "Clown" is not an accurate enough word for how crazy these guys are, no matter what their personality is. There's this happy dance they do, I swear to Chuck, that, once you've seen it, you can never unsee it...it's hopping and diving and weaving and pouncing all rolled into one big elaborate dance that is just hysterical to watch.
Most ferrets don't make a lot of noise, soft noises while playing, dooking and squeeking and the occasional honk, but anything loud or resembling screaming is not of the good. Finn used to scream when I'd put him down or leave a room when I first brought him home; the screaming sounds an awful lot like a baby screaming, it is instantly creepy. If you hear it, however, something is definitely wrong (in Finn's case, he was spoiled rotten before he came to me, so, diva issues) and they need help from something, real or imagined (in Finn's case, always imagined).

This got a little long, but the truth is that ferrets are FUN. They're crazy and steal your heart so fast and, honestly, I've always been able to count on them for a laugh or to distract me from whatever is bothering me. They're not really so different from any other kind of pet, they just do more stealing and dancing than most cats and have a much shorter life span...that's probably why they're so full of mayhem and joy all the time.