Our most unique and oldest member of house. These are just some of the things that we have experienced with a Ferret. First of all, you must do a few things to make the living experience a very joyful one.

FERRET-PROOFING

Ferret-proofing the home is essential if you have a ferret. Due to their incredible curiosity and fearless nature, they will, if given the opportunity, get into anything. Your ferrets must not be allowed into your cabinets where they can get into your cleaning agent, garbage, poisons, etc. They can open a cabinet by lying on the floor and working the door with their paws and claws. I had to put strong magnetic latches on all my lower cabinets to keep them out. To the right you can see jumpy who figured out how to climb up inside of my end table. He seems to love sleeping in the drawer, particularly when it is closed. Ferrets are not rodents and therefore do not chew on things like wires or furniture, but they will taste soap, detergents and poisons.

You must make certain your ferret cannot get under your stove, behind the refrigerator, between your washer and dryer or in any large appliance. They can find their way to a motor or fan belt and end up dead. They might end up stuck under your stove and you might not know he's there. Fortunately, most appliances are low enough that an adult ferret cannot get under it. But care must be taken to insure they cannot get behind an appliance where an opening might lead to the internals. The answer sometimes lies in using duct tape, wood and plastic.

return to top

If a ferret observes you entering another room and closing the door, the ferret is sure to try to follow you. If you have wall to wall carpet, he may scratch at it trying to dig into the other room. To remedy this situation, I put scrap pieces of carpeting or a plastic runners by that door. Sometimes I have to hammer down the runners to keep the ferrets from tunneling.

I have a hallway leading to the rest of my home and I chose to keep the ferrets from accessing the whole house. I developed a ferret barrier to keep them out while at the same time allowing me the convenience of stepping over it. I cut a two-foot high board which is exactly as wide as the hallway. It slides up and down for removal. On the walls are attached some clear pieces of plastic to hold the board in place. On the board, I taped a piece of cardboard all along the top which angles down to the floor like a roof. It is only attached at the top. A ferret can jump higher than a two-foot wall and drag himself over it. However, when he tries to get over my barrier, he has to jump over the angled piece of cardboard. It is slippery and when he tries to grasp it, it collapses and he falls to the floor. After about a half hour of effort trying to figure out how to get over the barrier, my ferret gave up and never tried again.