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Welcome to The Care and Needs section of my websites.
This section will be rather large because I would like to give very detailed
information on the care instructions for ferrets. This is a good section if you
are considering of buying a ferret because it shows you what you are about to
put yourself into. Not bad at all, but just so you know ferrets are not rabbits
who you just feed and play. You need to clean up after ferrets and take care of
there health, but they are very rewarding pets! If a link does not appear in the
bottom then I have not made that section yet. Here is the outline for this part
of the website:
I. Nutrition
A. Food
B. Treats
C. Supplements
II. Litter
A. What Kind To
Use
III. Bathing
A. Baths
IV. Cages
A. Type of cage
V. Cage
Accesories
A. Beds
B. Litter Boxes
C.
Water bottles and food bowls
D. Toys inside
cage
VI. Toys
A. Tubes
B. Soft toys
C. Furniture
D. Boxes
VII. Games
A. General
anytime of year
B. Winter
C.Summer & Spring
D. Taking your ferrets outdoors
VIII. Cleaning
A. Cage Cleaning
B. Litter Box Cleaning
IX. Diseases
A. Cancer
B. Noninfectious
C. Parasitic health problems
D. Infectious Diseases
X. Shelters
A. What are they
B. Find one close to you
XI. FAQ's
As you see I have a pretty long outline, if you dont see something that should
be in this section email me at sunnybabe57@hotmail.com 2 heads are better than
one! :) So lets start with this thing.
I. Nutrition
A. Food
Food is a very important part of your ferrets health, ferrets are
carnivores are they need lots of protein. Befor choosing you food you need to
know that a ferret food needs AT LEAST 34% protein. Also look at the ingredients
in teh food, you need food with meat, such as beef or turkey. They do make
"ferret food" that has fruits, such as dried bananas, papayas, and rasins. None
of those things are good for ferrets, raisins are only ok as a treat. So do not
buy a food that had dried fruits in it. Some food I suggest are :
Marshall
Totally Ferret
Superior Choice Ferret Diet
Path Valley Farm
Vita Ferret Diet
ZuPreeme Ferret diet
All of these foods can be bought at
The Ferret Store
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B. Treats
Ferrets can have many different treats. You can buy treats offline or in
a petstore. They make treats just for ferrets, but again watch out for the
ingredients you dont want to give your ferrets any fruits unless its raisins
(only as a treat) and definetly dont buy any treats that have added sugar
(example is Yoggies). Even though your ferrets might like them sugar is bad for
them. Some treats I suggest are:
Plain raisins
Bandits (Marshall Pet)
Totally Ferret Treat
Chicken FerretBites
Rosies'
Turkey & Bacon Ferret Treat
You can get all these treats at the treat section At the
Ferret Store
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C. Supplements
Supplements are good for ferrets daily, supplements will give ferrets
nutriets and vitamins that will help them keep their healthy fur and keep them
active throughout there lives. Supplements are given daily and ferrets love
them! Supplements contain nutrients and vitamins that are not in foods are that
food contains very little of. Supplements are not required in a ferrets life but
they are highly recommended. I also suggest in the shedding season agaist
furballs. Here are some I suggest:
Marshall:
Furo-vite
Furo-tone
8 in 1:
Ferretone
Ferretvite
All of them and more can be found at the
ferret store supplements
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II. Litter
A. What kind to use
I do not suggest kitty litter that is clay like and that clumps, it is
bad for ferrets, especially if they get it in there system. I do not suggest
wood shavings either, they are not for ferrets. I suggest Marhall litter or Wood
based litters are fine. As for the pan I suggest a high corner pan, ferrets line
ot do it in corners and the high corner they will never miss and do it in the
wrong spot. To find the litter and pans fo to the
Ferret Store Litter
Section
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III. Bathing and
Drying
I do not suggest bathing a ferret right after you get it. I would
try to avoid baths involving shampoo unless they become extremly dirty, like
after digging in the dirt. If you bath your ferret to often (more than 2 times a
month) you will cause him to have dry skin ad a dry coat. Some times ferrets
smell worse after having a bath, this is because they restore the oils you got
rid off when you washed him with shampoo, washing your ferret without shampoo
wont cause him to smell worse. Some ferrets dont enjoy baths to much, so this is
what I suggest. A ferrets body temperature is 102, so what seems to be warm
water to you will feel colder to the, so make sure the water temperature is nice
and warm, not hot though. If this is the first time your giving your ferret a
bath you need to find out if he enjoys baths, some ferrets like them others hate
them. If he does not enjoy it and tries to jump out you need to secure him, i
always gave mine a bit of ferretvite so he would calm down, the first few times
he will try to jump out, but mine doesnt mind it at all now. When washing with
shampoo take your ferret out of the bath and hold him with one hand while
rubbing the shampoo out with the other. Rinse him off them, drying is quiet
simple. Do NOT USE A HAIR DRYER. This will scare him away. Use a towel and dry
him as best you can, then you let him go. You might see him crawling around,
dont be afraid this is how they naturally dry themselves.
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IV. Cages
A. Types Of Cages
One of the most important part of your ferret(s) life is their
cages. Their are many types of cages out there and I dont want you going out and
spending 300 on a cage that is bad. Lets get started... I think the best cage
for a ferret is the Quality Cage. You can build it up to a huge cage. Start with
one level, then go to 2, 3 and eventually you have the best cage ever! That is
if you ever decide to get that many ferrets, A 2 level Quality Cage I suggest
for 1-2 ferrets a 3 level would be 2-4, and anything more is 4 or above, you can
always get a huge Quality cage for 2 ferrets if you want, but they are
expensive. If you dont want to spend so much money on a cage I also suggest a
MIDWEST cage or a MARSHALL cage, you cannot add levels to them though like you
can to the Quality Cage. Cages I dont sugges are cages with ladders and levels
that are plastic, such as the SuperPet cage, your ferrets tend to slip and are
unconfortable moving around and they will never make there way up to the top
floor. Martin cages are great too. If you are going to buy a dog cage or any
other cage I have not mentioned consider these things: do not have a wire
bottom, if you are going to have ramps make sure they are not plastic like the
SuperPet cages. To buy the Cages i mentioned visit
The Ferret Store Cages
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V. Cage Accesories
To pick out any of the accesories visit the
Ferret Store Cage
Accesories Section.
A. Beds
This is probably my most favorite part of this section, I love
to pamper my ferrets with the best! Ahh Beds, the most fn accesory! Lets just
say this, ferrets love to sleep in hammocks and hanging places. So buys a large
hammock is great, hanging cubes and the cute "space ship hanger" are great too,
you can always make your own hammock, its not hard. One kind of hammock I dont
suggest are the plastic ones, ferrets love soft and warm places. Another kind of
bed is the hanging tube this is a great bed too, but ferrets dont always use it
for a bed, they also like to use it as a play place in a cage. You can also use
the tubes that you lay down on the ground for a slepping corner. I have 2 kinds
of beds in my cage, a hanging cube and a basket. Yes you can fund a small picnic
basket or any basket and put an old pillowcase (empty) in it and its another
favorite sleepign place. Since ferrets sleep a lot of the time picking out a
great bed is important, and have more than one option for them, they love to
switch around.
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B. Litter Boxes
You might be thinking.. "She already talked about litter boxes in the litter
section", your right, but here i will talk about how many you need and where you
need them. As I mentioned before I suggest the High Corned Pan, (to know why go
to
II.A),
how many litter pans and where you need them depends on how many ferrets you
have, first of all I suggest putting your litter pans always on the bottom
floor, all of the rest of the floors are for sleeping ect. and your ferrets dont
want to smell poop when they are sleeping. As for how many this is what I
suggest. If you have 2 or less you dont need more than one, 2 or more I suggest
2 pans.
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C. Water
Bottles and Food Bowls
Ferrets love to eat. First what type of water bottles and food bowls. Well for
the water bottles I really suggest a water bottle with the little ball, its
easier to drink out of, as for the food bowls it really doesnt matter, although
if its not a hanging feeder or if its not held by anything ferrets like to turn
the bowl upside down to see if theres any treats inside, so you might have more
work to do. But I have bowls for feeding and It works fine. Now as for how many
you need. Well it depends on teh cage. a 2 level cage 1 station with food and
water will do fine. As for a 3 level cage I would have 2 stations for food and
water. If your going to have the Quality Play Cage I would have 3 stations.
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D. Toys Inside Cage
Ferrets love to play even if your not around. And
if you have 2 ferrets I would suggest having some empty room in the cage where
they can wrestle as for the toys just anything that doesnt need supervision. You
wouldnt want to put any soft toys because they might rip them up and swallow the
insided. For tubes i would suggest, just buy a hanging one. You can use hard
toys or teasers that you hang up, just make sure no small parts that they can
swallow are dealt with. As for everything else just think like this: Can they
break it? Can they swallow it? , safety first dont forget!
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VI. Toys
Buy all toys at
Ferret Store Toys
A. Tubes
Ferrets love tubes, and dark small places. I see 2 kinds of tubes. Soft tubes
and hard tubes. Soft tubes can be stretched and bent to different shapes, hard
tubes cant. But that doesnt mean hard tubes are bad. This is what I have and its
more than enough for my Fuzzies. I have 1 Marshall Pet Thru-way (soft, maz 20
ft.), 1 super pet felxy tube (soft, max 8 ft) and 1 play set that includes 3
hard elbows, 3 hard straight, 1 hard tee (for options on where to go) one soft
flexy, and one roll around ball. I also bought 2 bubble plugs for the ball, and
I somehow connected teh Marshal tube to the all the rest Super Pet tubes. and I
connect 2 ways into teh ball and 2 bubble plugs, and I have the marhsall tube
ready to connect to the ball if I need to leave for a minute so they dont get
out. That is more than enough tubes for me and I have 2 fuzzies, you dont need
that much but thats what i have. The super pet tubes are expensive though, so
you can just buy 2 marhall tubes and thats enough too, but you cant connect
them.
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B. Soft Toys
Ferrets love soft toys to drag around and play with. You dont need a special
soft toy for a ferret, just one of those cheap soft toys or what also works good
is a one of those little bean bags. Make sure to always check on the soft toys
to make sure that the ferrets didnt rip them up and swallow the inside, if they
do rip one up you can always sow it back toghther. You can find little soft toys
anywhere, they can range from 1-5 dollars. Another good soft toys are teasers.
You hand them up and its a blast watching the ferrets try to grab them and hind
them in their "hidy hole"!
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C. Furniture
Ferrets love to hang around in kitty furniture. They love it, the litle chairs
or the tvs, or even the sleeping places, they love them! A false fact about
ferrets is that they tear up your furniture, this is not true, they might
accidently scratch it if you do not clip their nails but otherwise its unlikely
that they will try to tear it up. If you do not want to spend 40-100 dollars for
kitty furniture I use a bean bag, one of those big cheap ones, they love to
pounce and sleep on it. You can use any old couch or any funiture you dont need,
they love to explore, just make sure its safe!
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D. Boxes
Boxes, to a ferret that word means a lifetime of fun, from digging to sleeping,
from sleeping to playing. Boxes are amazing and cheap fun for ferret. Buy a
cheap dig box with eatable plastic peanuts adn the ferret store and see them
have loads of fun. Or take an old box than someone shipped you something in, put
it sideways, throw some toys and clothes in and it a ferrets new home. You can
do so many things with boxes, use your imagination. Its probably the cheapest
and funnest way to play! For more ideas on games with boxes see
VII.A
Back To The Top
VII. Games
A. General Anytime
Ferrets love to play games, and they're experts at them, here are some great
games to entertain your ferrets and yourself with! If you have anygames that
arent listed here please email me them and I will add the game(s) and give you
credit! sunnybabe57@hotmail.com , so here are the games
1. Fill a box with plastic bags, I suggest to cut the handles
off, and let your ferrets dig in them, watch the fun!
2. Fill a bathtub with water, about 1-3 inches, drop some ping
pong balls with some ferreton on the water, put your ferret in and watch the
splashes!
3. Find a very large cardboard box, cut and fold triangular
shaped from scraps of cardboard, take to the inside ot the cardboard box, cut
holes in the side for your ferrets to get in, put several treats adn watch the
fun!
4. Get a large tubaware box, fill with sand and potting sand and
watch your ferret dig, i suggest putting a towel under the box to avod a mess.
5. Get a carboard sheet and cut holes in it, put some ferretone
on your fingers and stick your fingers in different holes, Note: Nips may occur
6. Fill a box with paper balls and dump it on 2 ferrets playing
7. Take any small toy and hang it from a string, watch the
ferrets go nuts!
8. Pick up 1-2 fuzzies and put them in a pillowcase, drop some
raisins in and shake the pillowcase, watch them try to get it!
9. Take a pair of old jeans or pants and hang it evenly from the
ceiling about 3 inches off the floor, watch them jump on them and through them
10. Take many boxes, lay them on their side, thrown some toys and
blankets and watch them play inside
11. Fill a new litterbox with some water and watch them drink and
splash in it
Thats all for now send me some more at sunnybabe57@hotmail.com
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B, Winter
Winter is a great time of year for ferrets, here are a few things to do in the
winter, email more to me at sunnybabe57@hotmail.com
1. fill a bucket or tub with snows and lets your ferret play
2. Put your ferrets on leashes and take them ouside in the snow
(not for to long though!!!)
3. Dump some snow on a fuzzie! See them go nuts!
4. Roll a big ball of snow (very big) and put your fuzzie on
top, watch him start digging inside!
C. Summer and Spring
1. UNDER CONSTRUCTION
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