Pet Forum / Mammals / Ferrets / June 2009

Great to hear from you, D.  As far as nipping.....it's funny how young
Jackie and I have come to an agreement.  She *NEVER* bites or nips me except
for.... if I'm playing rough with her and I put her underneath a blanket and
keep scruffing her with my hand.  At that time, she knows that she's allowed
to *bite the hell out of my hand*!  eeheh  And I let her do it too, thinking
it's just hunting instinct and I don't want to deny her that.  Anyway, only
under the blanket, she has free reign to bite my hand as hard as she can and
I'll just grit my teeth and bear it.  She can really bite hard too....it's
right at the limit of pain threshold but not enough to draw blood.

When really excited, she'll even bite down on my hand then start shaking her
head back and forth, like trying to rip off a chunk of MY HAND!  eheheh

Like I said though, this only happens during rough play underneath a
blanket. Any other time she never even nips. She knows the rules.

As far as the litter box issue.....Jackie is completely house trained. She
only goes on the newspapers that I set around the house.  Because of that,
she gets to get out of the cage pretty often when I'm home.

Old Fred used to be good about it but not anymore.  He'll often poop on my
carpet these days.  arrghhh!  Because of that, I'll only let him out after
"going to the bathroom" and then only when I'm with him supervising.  He
spends more time in the cage but because he's old, he likes to sleep more
than Jackie anyway....so it all works out well.

I went out today and bought $60 worth of ferret food. 3 different brands all
to be mixed together. That's a lot to pay at one time but it lasts my two
for 17 weeks.  That works out to 50 cents per day for both of them.  Not so
bad.

Here's what I use:
- 7 lb bag of Marshall's
- 4 lb bag of Zupreem
- 4 lb bag of Natural Choice Complete Care kitten food

Couldn't buy the Natural Choice thing today.  That's one that was recalled a
month or two ago.  Nothing dangerous though.  They still haven't shipped a
new batch yet.

This is exactly the reason I use a mix of 3 brands though....should one be
discontinued, they still have 2/3 of what they are used to eating.

Gary