Same thing goes for baby kittens. My sister’s cat had kittens (she also owned a ferret) and the ferret got out of its cage found the kittens and killed the whole lot of 'em 
Sure ferret can kill most housecats but can they handle a tiger? 
Cats would be wise to avoid possums. My aunt’s neighbor had a little yap dog, and a possum killed it. We had a stray cat with three kittens hide in our garage that same summer. One kitten when home with my aunt, and a few days later, before we could capture the other two, possums had killed one and injured the other. The mother cat apparently assumed both were dead, since she abandoned the injured one, which we were able to capture and get antibiotics into so she didn’t die of the infected neck wound the possum left her with.
As for ferrets and cats… when one of our siamese cats and one of our ferrets were babies, they played together frequently. Of course the kitten was soon much larger than the ferret. The reason we stopped letting them play together much was because of the ferret, though. The kitten had huge ears (all his life, we thought he’d “grow into them” but he didn’t) which proved to be far too tempting for the ferret: she’d climb his back to chew his ears. Once he got to be twice her size, he was also a lot stronger, and really didn’t enjoy his ears being attacked, so we brought their playing to an end before he hurt her since he was beginning to lash back.
I watched a Tom cat attack and kill a ferret in literally 10 seconds. There’s your answer, if a cat is actually trying to kill the ferret and wants to eat it then the ferret has no chance. Playing is a different story.
I was sort of hoping My Lord would have an opinion on this. At least he’d provide a ton of cites.
My male cat could easily take down the ferrets, our female cat seemed to back off when the ferrets became aggressive. I could not let the Tom cat in the house while the ferrets were out I am sure he would kill them.
And a polecat is a whole different critter than somebody’s pet ferret. In any case, I used to be the co-owner of a small army of ferrets. I saw the whole cat v. ferret battle played out a bunch of times, especially after my wife (of the time) started vet school and lived above a veterinary clinic with several other students and their assortment of pets and rescues. I never once saw a ferret retire from the field. Every single time it was the cat that fled in disarray. Further, although the cats seemed to find it a uniformly terrorizing experience, if not in fact a source of lasting psychological trauma, the ferrets all regarded it as jolly good fun indeed.
A treasured memory: a particularly pissy-tempered Persian cat that I absolutely loathed yowling in terror and running laps around the combined kitchen/dining room with a ferret clamped to its tail. The floor was covered with linoleum and the ferret was skidding along behind the cat like it was water skiing. I thought it was taking the turns a little too wide, but it was having too much fun for me to be really critical.
Without a doubt, a ferret would win. Have you ever seen those things in action? They are vicious jackals from hell!
One more vote for the cat, mainly because I love cats and absolutely despise ferrets. Of course if it was a zombie ferret re-animated by someone who signed up just to weigh in on this (almost exactly 8 year old) debate, I’d probably take the ferret.
Welcome to the board Ironcross!
I always figured being very concerned with cleanliness, cats avoid possums because they are grossed out by the snot bubble routine they do when they play dead.
My friends lab seemed utterly confused, for a minute. Now labs have two responses to anything gross. They either eat it or roll in it. His dog decided to do both. For a minute we thought he was going to lick the poor possums face off, then he nearly crushed it rolling against it. Poor abused possum.
I realize this is an older post but ignorance doesnt justify stupidity…the bite power of a ferret is roughly 4 times stronger than a house cat, 40lbs for house cat and 160lbs for a ferret. I have 4 ferrets and 2 cats and every time my 15lbs cat tries to mess with my 2.5lbs ferret, he finds himself on the losing end! Mind you this cat kills birds, rabbits, and chases off other cats reguardless of size. So with that if you were to ever see a feral cat and a wild ferret meet up in the wild, that cat better turn around and not mess with that ferret!
My vet is of the opinion that in most cases, the ferret has the advantage. Most ferrets I’ve known are far more tenacious than any cat I’ve known.
I once saw a cat strolling through our yard come face to face with a groundhog living under our deck. They were roughly the same size. After going eyeball to eyeball for about three seconds,
the cat fled.
I thought this was smart, since although groundhogs aren’t carnivores, they have strong teeth and powerful claws.
Tigers I’m not sure about, but they can definitely handle lions.
Hmm depends on a lot of things. In the proposed scenario, if we have a large (25lb, unaltered) cat that is experienced in hunting and killing vs a large (4lb) ferret, with no escape? I’d bet on the cat every time.
Sure if the cat can run, the cat will run. It doesn’t see any reason to fight this ferret, and as noted above, the ferret usually enjoys it. In this case, it can’t run, so it will usually fight. A cat when panicking or fighting generates a lot more force than it does when playing, and one can kill an animal larger than itself in a fight.
Remember, most of the cats you know are fixed. They’re hormonally a shadow of themselves when it comes to being violent.
Yeah, but so are most ferrets.
It’s easier to find an intact cat than an intact ferret.
Fair enough. I wasn’t aware of that.
However, as a real-world example of how this fight might play out, here’s a video of a bobcat hunting a mink. The bobcat is about the size of a large house cat, and fights like one. The mink appears to be roughly the size of a ferret, and largely fights like weasels do.
The bobcat does decide that this attempt at dinner is too unpleasant to actually finish, but there’s no point in time where he looks to be in danger of being dinner himself. The reality is, cats the size of bobcats see animals the size of ferrets as prey. It may be a difficult meal, but it’s not actually a threat.
The evidence I’ve seen on question seems mixed. One video in which a decent sized cat and ferret were mock fighting showed the latter caning the cat - it seemed twice as fast and could have killed the cat many times over. That said, the cat seemed disgruntled and irritated while the ferret was full of the joy of battle. However, I saw another video (from what appeared to be a Chinese reality show, believe it or not) where a cat was battling a large ferret or weasel-like creature that showed said creature dead a few frames later (I think it was a mink). Likewise Google searches of ferret v cat reveal photos of cats posed before dead ferrets as though they have killed them.
I imagine the answer is that it depends on the size and temperament of the combatants. Certainly I think the ferret would have more of a chance than the size disparity would suggest, yet if both creatures were of max size, strength, speed and valour I would bet on the cat. I think there is some validity to the theory that many cats are cowardly and non aggressive and therefore do not show well in mock fights, whereas ferrets are usually game.
There is definitely a wide variation in cat prowess. Many posts here are saying that their cats are scared of possums, yet my unfixed male tomcat used to kill them regularly (usually youngish ones, but even the older ones shut up when he was on the scene). That said, he is something of an Arnie among cats; handsome as he is, his forelimbs are thick to the point of absurdity. Incidentally, he doesn’t disembowel or snap spines either - his victims’ bodies are invariably untouched … except for the fact that they’ve lost their heads.
My cat and ferret were pals. They played together.
The cat has a minor advantage in being able to jump to a higher location.
Spam post reported, which resurrected this old thread once again.