Our Pet Ferrets Page

Our Ferrets home outside the cage


Pebbles	Sugar	Duke & Duchess

Hello,

Welcome to a special part of our family. The little rascals above didn't take any time at all to weasel their way into our hearts, garbage, dressers, you name it :).We miss Pebbles and Sugar deeply and remember them with fondness.

One thing we strongly encourage anyone considering Ferrets as a pet is to get a PAIR.. We acquired Pebbles and Sugar separately on separate occasions. Pebbles got out when company either came or went, we are not sure which. We do know that nothing we tried, brought her back inside with us.

Loosing Pebbles devastated myself and our son. We cried about it for days, and swore we would never do it again. I am disabled and Pebbles had a way of cheering up the entire family by her simple natural antics.

Because of this, my family knew how much I really missed Pebbles and they brought Sugar home about 6 months later. We lost sugar do to the natural curiosity for trouble. Sugar got herself caught in a tight spot and we couldn't find her till it was to late. With the horrible way we lost Sugar I had started packing up the cage in wrenching tears swearing once again, NEVER AGAIN!

I kept finding something here or something there that we had gotten for either Pebbles or Sugar. The waterworks would start flowing for hours again.

My family not ones to give up and take bad luck at destined value, got Duke and Duchess for me in Jan of 1998. They were to be my Christmas (1997) present but did not arrive at the pet store in time. We needed to make a run for Fish Food, and I wandered back to the area where the Ferrets were kept and these two just tugged at my heart from first sight. I started crying again, right there in the pet store. My son (4) came up and sat on my knee where I was sitting on the floor, and said "Now Mommy don't you cry, we are going to Take any two you want home with us for Your Christmas Present". We had discussed the errors from before and had wondered if a Pair would have helped. I was still hurting so bad from the previous loss and so reluctant to risk the loss of any more I was still adamant I couldn't risk it again..

The sales lady came by and our son pointed out the two I had pointed out to him as liking the best. Once I held them in my hands, I just had to try it one more time.

Duke and Duchess have been with us since Jan, 1998, and have become a very important part of our family. We have learned a very painful lesson with this pair. If we would have bought a playmate for Pebbles, chances are she would still be with us today.

Ferrets are not like a cat or a dog by any means. They are not like a hamster or gerbil that can be content in their cage all the time. Ferrets need to interact with the entire family. If you want to adopt ferrets you MUST be prepared to devote an allotted amount of time to them. With a playmate, they are capable of entertaining themselves quite nicely if you are busy. While out of their cage they will look out for one another while exploring and hiding everything you have no desire for them to hide :).


*Duke is our Drawer Thief*		Duchess LOVES to remove the insoles from ALL our shoes. Dad's Boots are her favorites though :)

We built their cage. Nothing fancy, just a simple two story cage big enough for the two of them to play in. The bottom half of the cage is the utility portion. We have a pan along the back half for them to go to the bathroom. DUST FREE kitty litter helps absorb the mess. A corner of the bottom is for their food container and water.

The food container we have is SMALL because Duchess liked to dig out all the food and climb out of the cage THROUGH her food dish! The smaller one works very nicely at making her angry because she is to big to fit through this one. (We went through 3 of them till we found one that would keep her INSIDE her cage)

We took PVC sewer pipe (4") and connected it around the bottom of the cage on the outside. An opening into the cage, on each side, allows them a place to run around in or to hide if they wish and yet still be confined to their cage. Till we got use to them hiding in the tubing we would panic when we couldn't find them. They had to be laughing at us as they rested their heads on the rim of the tube looking at us. Since Duke doubled in size compared to Duchess, he rarely enters the tubing now and its a haven for Duchess to get away from him. Poor Duke, on the other hand, has no such luxury to escape Duchess when she wants to play and he wants to SLEEP.

The top portion of the cage is the recreation area. We have one corner set up as a warm place, for those rare Texas occasions it gets chilly and they need to be warm. We put a corner pouch with sheep skin tied securely, so Duchess can't rearrange the "furniture". We have a tube hammock that they both take turns sleeping in, or both at once. Then we have a flat hammock that hangs that fits them both curled up in their favorite positions quite nicely.. I took an old bathroom rug and connected it to the floor of the top portion so when they are playing their little feet do not get hooked on the cage wiring.

EVERYTHING has to be secured to the cage so it won't move or Mrs. Duchess will have it rearranged before you can move away. When cleaning out the cage, she is ALWAYS there supervising the progress. :) Duke doesn't miss an opportunity out of the cage to miss his adventures he could care less if the cage is dirty or clean anyway.

In Oct. 1998 we were flooded out of our home. I awoke and thanked GOD we had built the top portion of their cage, the bottom half was completely under water and they were safe from immediate danger in the hanging hammocks. Since the flooding however they have not been real thrilled about 'bath' time. Poor dears.

We Adopted My Brother in laws Ferrets around April 15th. The niece and Nephews weren't keeping up with them so we have now added to our Brood :) Below are Nikki and Sable

Below are links we have found of useful information or simply fun sites about Ferrets. We hope you enjoy them also. Our Ferrets are a very precious annoying :) portion of our family and we pray they live a long and happy life with us.

All our animals are here