For the last few months we have been letting the ferret out of his cage to roam the house for long periods of time. Aside from chasing the cats he doesn’t get into too much trouble. He still gets into everything but he doesn’t pee or poop on the floor. We leave the door of his cage open and he uses his box, so that is not a problem.
I think we have spoiled him. He used to be content with coming out for just a few hours but now he wants to be out all the time! Day and night! He shakes the shit out of his cage until we open the door for him.
Now that summer is here and the house isn’t as closed up as it is in the winter, I am afraid he may find a chance to sneak out of the house. I am trying to get him back in the habit of spending more time in his cage.
Does anyone else have ferrets? Have you ever had to train them to be content in their cage more often? How did you do this?
I don’t have any ferrets so these thoughts may be totally useless, but here they are anyway:
Is the cage in an area where you normally spend your time? I have a bird whose cage is in the room where I spend most of my time. When I come home from work, he gets let out. He’s able to fly around and interact with me. If I go to another room, he’ll start giving contact calls and may eventually fly on over. When I’m back in the room, he roams around a bit, plays, attacks some food and eventually settles down. He often goes back to the cage. I assume he goes back there because he is comfortable in it and he knows where I am.
Is his cage covered or otherwise enclosed? I’m guessing that ferrets like a nice, cozy, dark place to sleep. (I’m also guessing that his cage already is, but thought I’d throw that out as a thought.)
Let him out when he’s not shaking the shit out of the cage You’re rewarding him for his “bad” behavior. He might escalate his behavior at first. Don’t give in. You may even have to stand back from the cage until he shakes less vigorously and then approach. You might also try lessening this behavior with his favorite food (you can get several lessons in at one session) and then transferring this newly learned behavior with the stand back/approach/let out reward.
Keep in mind that all of these suggestions are brought to you by one who doesn’t know what to do with her little horndog of a kakariki.
Just out of curiosity, astro–what is going on in that picture?
As to the OP:
We have 2 ferrets. They sleep in a cage. We try to let them out as much as possible, but have totally given up on the idea of letting them have the run of the house–too many dangers.
We have them blocked into the living room, which is the most ferret-proof of our rooms. So, when we let them out, we barricade the doorway so they can’t leave the room and they happily go nuts in there.
How you can make a ferret be more content with staying in a cage longer, I don’t know. But if you put serious effort into ferret-proofing and enclosing one room (one where, as brach noted, you spend a lot of time) you can eliminate your ultimate problem (that he might get out) and your ferret may be happy enough.
Marcie and I had to have our 7.5 year old ferret put to sleep two weeks ago. I held him until it was finished and I haven’t gotten over it yet.
As to shaking his cage, ours did that and always got his way. I couldn’t stand to confine him, since confinement would kill me. The one time that I didn’t let him out, he continued shaking it and then went into some sort of insulin shock–he had to have some fairly major surgery, but he lived through it. The vet told us that the stress of being confined and trying to escape might have precipitated the attack, although his condition made it certain it would have happened eventually. After that episode, we let him have free reign and just made sure he couldn’t get out of the house.
He did some things that were irritating, but he did many more that were a joy to see. Ferrets are such precious little beasts—we concluded that letting him run free was a small price to pay. We miss Ferry terribly.
LouisB, I’m sorry you lost your furry friend. As pet owners, we all know it’s inevitable, but it still hurts.
Perhaps ferrets are too delicate and you cannot allow cage shaking to happen and thus must let them out (like I said, IANAFO and simply don’t know anything about them). So, maybe another tack is possible: Encourage him to spend time in his cage by rewarding him a favored snack. If he happens to wander in there, give him a little treat.
In the same vein as making the cage as inviting as possible, perhaps adding a towel with your scent on it? I don’t know what a ferret’s sense of smell is like, but if they are anything like a dog’s, then you might give it a try. When I’d have to kennel my dogs, I used to sleep on a comforter I left with them a day or two before they went in.
I’m seriously worried about my ferret, Claudia. You see, we lost her buddy, Fang on Thursday(he was about 10, and finally gave up the ghost), and since then she’s been sleeping more, and seriously subdued when I take her out to play with her. I’ve paid more attention to her, but she seems inconsolably lonely. I hesitate to get another ferret, in case she hates it, since it took a long time before she and Fang could stand each other, and I don’t have room for a second cage currently. I wouldn’t even know if I should buy a baby, or go to a ferret rescue place to get another adult (Claudia is about 4.5 yrs) or what, if I did decide to get another. Any idea what to do with a depressed ferret?
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Ours have never shook the cage either, but my brother’s rabbit would get pissed and do that. Bite the bars to shake it, right? How big is the cage? The one Claudia lives in is just about as tall as me, so they’ve always had plenty of room. Other than that, having some toys (ferret balls and such) keep them occupied. Of course, until now, I’ve always had 2 to keep each other company.
When we first got him he was content just to play in his cage and then come out for a few hours to take control of the house. His cage is very large with different sections and a hammock to sleep in. He has toys and treats and blankets and clean litter and everything but a nudie ferret pic hanging on his wall. He’s a spoiled brat.
We started letting him out more often and now he gets highly insulted that HE has to get in a cage while the cats can go where ever they want. I think this is one reason he torments them every chance he gets.
We have to physically put him in his bed with him grabbing the side and fighting the whoe time. If we put him in there before 10:00 he gets mad and starts shaking his cage again(bites the bars and jerks his body back and forth). We don’t let him out and he eventually goes to sleep, but as soon as he wakes up in the morning (around 7:00) he starts shaking his cage again and won’t quit until will let him out.
Now that summer is here, there will be kids running in and out of the house and the door may not get shut tight. I do think that he needs to be confined a lot of the time just for his own safety. Problem is, is whenever I have tried that he thinks that he needs to be in whatever place he isn’t. If he is in the bedroom, he scratches the door to get out, if the bedroom door were shut to keep him out, he would scratch to get in. It’s like chasing a two year old around.
I am going to try some of these suggestions and hopefully he will start behaving a little better. Thanks!
Our ferret lives in one of these, with added tubes from her old cage and a bunch of toys. We shut her in a bedroom to run about, otherwise she roams around in one of these so she can’t get into trouble. I would also recommend putting a bell on your ferret, you can also get a leash for bringing the ferret oustside. If you plan on the latter, please take the ferret for a rabies shot first.