Ferrets

I have just shown your post to mr.glamma and he is so jealous that you are able to give a home to ferrets,he used to have them as pets when he stayed with his family on the Isle of Man as a youngster he remembers that the more you handle them the friendlier they are but he is unsure about the relationship they will have with your cats as he remembers his being quite aggressive towards his aunts toy poodle,do keep us informed as to how you get on with them it sounds quite exciting.

When our DS was young he begged for a ferret but we always said 'no'!
Two years ago (now aged 22) he went ahead and bought one anyway. We were not best pleased as we imagined he would tire of it very quickly and leave us to care for it, but we were wrong.

Noodle the ferret is a very endearing, clever and amusing member of the family and DS looks after him very well.

I'm sure you will have lots of fun with your new ferrets. Please let us know how you get on with them

I love to watch the antics of ferrets! We used to know a chap that had a pair of them - their names were Semmit and Drawers (local vernacular for Vest and Pants)

oh I know what a semmit and drawers are you must be in Scotland somewhere Marelli.

The cats both live in the house and the ferrets have a lovely home outside. They have a 6 x 6 x 3 aviary which has lots of climbing bits and shelves and rope bridges for them to play on. If they are in the house for a play the cats will be kept away from them.

Our old dog Emily is 13 and has no time nor patience for anything new but she sleeps in her big crate all the time. The young dog Mocha who is nearly 2 has met a ferret and wanted to play with it the way he does with our 9 month old kitten.

Bellasnana well done to your lad for having his ferret Noodle, what kind is he? the most common are Albino, Polecat and Silvermitt although there are blacks which are from Europe and this new breed of Greyhound ferrets. My preference is for Silvermitt and hubby likes the polecats so we will probably end up with Albinos lol.

One of the reasons people shy away from them as pets is about the musky smell but when they are neutered it isn't a problem and when it comes to toileting they can be litter tray trained so that isn't a problem either.

I can't wait to get ours. They have a ferret palace to live in I'll post photos (that's if you can on here) for everyone to see.

I am in Scotland, smiter . I'll look forward to seeing the pictures when you upload them!

Marelli, I'm in Merseyside but am a born and bred Fifer. Hubby is from St Andrews and I am from the Dunfermline area.

smiter1955 I believe Noodle is a sable. He has just shed his winter coat which is creamy white and is now back to his usual colour. Funnily enough when DS bought him he was told it was a female, so it came as a shock when he took 'her' to be neutered and came back with a 'him'!!

I must admit at first I was wary of Noodle because he liked to bite and he had quite a grip! But he seems to have been educated not to do that now! He isn't smelly and is actually very clean, always using his litter tray even if he is out of his cage he will go back into it if he needs to use the loo!

I won't need to tell you how hilarious the 'war dance' is, as are some of the happy noises he makes. The only time I really got a shock was when I had left him playing outside and hadn't realized our cat was there - a ferret's scream of terror is quite alarming!

I will look forward to your photos . You can go on the 'photos' thread and put them there.

aww well done to your son for getting Noodle neutered. Too many people don't bother as they don't realise the health problems that can occur. I've seen the war dances with ferrets really amazing. Our love for them came from working in a rescue centre that had all sorts, rabbits, guinea pigs, ferrets, degus, hamsters, mice, cats, dogs, pigs lol. Hubby worked in the small animals unit and I was in the office but was often in the animals units for one reason and another and often got handed a couple of ferrets to hold whilst they were getting claws cut or ears cleaned and I just sort of fell in love. Watching a group together is great they're play fights are just brilliant and those sideways jumps. Arrg wish it was Friday, that's when we are hoping to get them.

I'm quite close to your home town, smiter1955 (Kirkcaldy area).

gosh spent a lot of time there, my aunt lived in Dunsire Street and I went to her during school holidays. My first grown up night out was in Kirkcaldy with my cousin, I was 15 at the time and she took me to the Raith.

Daft names for ferrets! A friend of ours had Mince and Tatties!

I went to the Raith a few times, smiter (also know Dunsire Street)! The Raith is now a type of church, I think! I was also there when I was 15 - far too young - but I was tall for my age!

mcem, my friend had two kittens called Sam and Ella (get it?)

My step-sister`s husband had two ferrets when I was about 11, but he wouldn`t let me get close to them, or pet them, because he used them for catching rabbits, which I thought was cruel. I did manage to hold them a couple of times when he wasn`t around, they were lovely.

well done on giving them some love in their wee lives. Its a shame that working animals don't get the loving that pets do. These guys may be going to live in an outside enclosure but we will go into that and give them attention and when the other pets are safely out of the way they will get to have a bit of play in the house.

There was an old chap who lived by my daughters primary school that used to walk his ferret on a lead [I say old; he was probably younger than I am now].

yes I believe they take to harness walking quite well. I think I will probably try it out. I also hope to get a bag. I've seen them before for ferrets, it's like a tote bag, fleecy lined and a short lead and clip inside so they can't jump out. Would love to see the reaction going shopping with a ferret in a bag, never seen a sign saying "No Ferrets" lol.

Hate the creatures. Where we lived previously next door's ferret escaped one night and killed most of my hens and savaged the rest so badly I had to put them out of their misery. All for the fun of killing.

sorry to hear about the chickens however that wasn't the animal's fault it was doing what is nature to them and the blame lays fully with the humans. It was their responsibility to make sure the animals were secure.

Ferrets are instinctive, natural killers. Why anybody would want one as a domestic pet is beyond me.

smiter good luck with the lead - Noodle hates his and goes into a death roll!

As for the killing chickens, that's awful but as you say, very irresponsible of the pet owners to let it escape.

Ferrets have been domesticated for over two thousand years and make lovely pets. Cats are natural born killers too - mine has brought many a sorry looking corpse to the doormat over the years, but surely nobody would suggest that you shouldn't keep a cat as a pet?

Each to their own, I guess.

Tell that to my dead and mutilated chickens smiter and that's my point anyway. Nasty creatures with an instinct to kill just for fun. I agree with Papaoscar. I can understand it when they were a necessity in bygone days when they could hunt and add to the food supply but nowadays?????

cats kill for fun, and dogs are actually natural killers too. Both wild animals that have been domesticated and kept as pets for years. I understand people being against ferrets, they aren't a first choice as pets. However rats, mice and hamsters all natural vermin are accepted as pets so why not ferrets, who by the way will keep down any risk of rats or mice on your property.

Can I ask how you the ferret got into your chickens? I presume you put them in a secure pen overnight to protect them from cats and foxes?

We looked after a pair of ferrets for a friend and they were lovely - so funny! When we moved house we found all the old chicken bones they'd stashed under our big bookcase

We once found a ferret running down the road when we lived in Cornwall. DH stopped the car and picked it up and plonked it on my lap. I wondered whether cuddling a strange ferret was such a good idea, but it curled up under my chin and was so friendly! We found out that it belonged to a little boy and was very used to being played with.