Ferret Care Tip #1: Play/interact with your ferret every day. Interacting with your ferret every day increases the bond you share together and enriches your ferret’s life. Ferrets are easily bored if confined to the same, unchanging surroundings day after day, which can cause stress. Daily play breaks up any possible monotony.
Playtime with you fuels your ferret’s mental processes and provides physical exercise, however, all interaction doesn’t have to include exercise. Petting your ferret or holding it while you watch TV also qualify.
Alicia Drakiotes, founder and operator since 1995 of FerretWise Rescue And Rehabilitation Center in Marlborough, New Hampshire, considers interacting with ferrets the second most important thing ferret owners can do.
"For optimum health, establish a daily routine for caretaking and interactions,” Drakiotes said. "Be aware that change in routine can be stressful to your ferrets”
Ferret Care Tip #2: Ferret-proof any rooms your ferret can access. Ferrets are curious, flexible animals that are drawn to places and things people might not expect. This can be a deadly combination if a home isn’t ferret-proofed.
That space above the kitchen floor boards? Yes, ferrets can get into that. Ferrets are known to end up in laundry, which can have a final stop in the washing machine. Ferrets also tend to eat bits of eraser tips, doorstop covers, houseplants and other items that can cause gastrointestinal blockage or illness.
Ferret-proofing requires thinking like a ferret and removing possible dangers, especially during holidays.
For Drakiotes, ferret-proofing is the most important concern for ferret owners. And she’s not alone in ranking it as important.
Claudia T., a ferret enthusiast and treasurer of Ferrets Anonymous in California, cautions that ferret owners should ferret-proof their entire house, whether or not the ferret is allowed access to it. This is because ferrets don’t always stay where they’re supposed to.
"Never underestimate a ferret!" Claudia T. said.