Ferret Care

Training a ferret

Is your ferret on its last warning before you are ready send it down the road? It doesn't have to happen at all. Many ill-informed people believe the ferret is a nasty, smelly animal which will pee everywhere and bite everyone. This is the common misconception about these pets. With the right guidance a ferret can be trained as well as any other animal, if not better.

The whole saga can be frustrating and heart breaking. A ferret heart breaking I hear you say. Well yes. Ferrets in the wild are social animals that develop very strong kin bonds in their family groups. They will naturally start to look for that bond with their owners, showing affection, displeasure and many other signs and states of mind. This is the first step in the ferret training process, recognizing the signs. It's no different to a dog. Try picking up a dog to hug or cuddle it when it's in the, the wrong mood and you see what I mean. Been they're done that myself. The only problem is not the dog, the owner who fails to read the mood and situation. The dog doesn't know it�s not human after all.

The usual unfortunate saga usually goes like this:

You go to the pet shop and see a ferret. Yes the cage whiffs a little, but it looks at you with those bright knowing eyes and there's a connection. It is bright, sharp and very cute, so you buy it. Things go well to start and you follow the shop advice. Keep it in a cage, but let it out for exercise and to play with toys. It all seems to be going great. 'Snuffle' is cute, playful and when he is up and active great fun.

Then after a couple of months the things you heard about ferrets all seem to be happening. The smell seems to get everywhere and it poops and pees everywhere and I mean everywhere. Nevertheless is there any in the litter tray? On top of that this 'cute' animal is starting to nip and bite, you, family friends, their shoes, their hair. People stop coming around after a while. Then the nibbling starts, a shoe here, an electric cable there. Then it hits home. You had become much attached to Snuffle, but you can't cope. Is it time to get ridding of him, tears or not, to save your sanity?

This is all too common the sad story with ferrets. There are volumes of training books and advice on dogs and cats, but the poor ferret is left out. Nevertheless the truth is that it is easy to train a ferret with the right information.