Manitoba ferret association

Ferrets will be interested in nearly anything for about 10 seconds. Some will find new things more interesting than others.. and some will find them more interesting when you actually play with them. Use your judgment to find new things for them that will be safe (avoid things they can easily chew off a piece of, foam rubber, latex, etc.) and then supervise the interactions.

I’d Rather Be a Dog, or Ferret Boredom
By Bob Church

This article appeared in Issue #16 of Modern Ferret Magazine. Used with permission.

OK, he did it. A burglary charge; he’d been caught lifting the wallet from some woman’s purse and it was off to the big house. Now he’s locked behind bars.

He paces back and forth for a while, then realizes there is no way out, so drifts over to the bed and sleeps. Once, he rolled over long enough to notice his belly didn’t stop at his waist, but continued on toward his knees.

With nothing to do and mentally and physically frustrated, whenever he is allowed into the exercise yard he causes trouble, even gets destructive. He spends even more time in solitary confinement. After a while, he just loses interest in almost anything, never causes trouble anymore, just eats and sleeps.

Is this just another story about problems inherent in the U.S. penal system? Not likely. Such conditions are considered cruel and unusual, a punishment banned by the U.S. Constitution.

This is a story about the conditions that many ferrets face each day. Locked into cages with few things of interest, little environmental interaction, and unending monotony, the little beasties drift into behaviors that are unhealthy and destructive. In essence, they stop being ferrets and start being caged animals, displaying behaviors that are neurotic and bizarre.

Ferrets, like nearly all mustelids, are highly intelligent creatures full of curiosity and play. The curiosity is an evolutionary behavior that helps them to find food.

Ferrets use a random search pattern when looking for food; you see it each time the ferret is placed into a new environment. They move all over the room, nose to floor, sniffing and touching everything with their noses.

This reflects the hunting pattern of wild polecats, which use their noses instead of their eyes to find prey. The random nature of the searching is designed to increase their chance of coming across an odor trail that will lead them to food.

Part of the curiosity displayed by ferrets relates to this almost overpowering need to smell and investigate new objects in the environment.

It’s a deeply ingrained ferret behavior that is so well known that “ferret” is used to describe prolonged investigation and searching.

Indeed, “ferret” has been used as slang for a detective or spy (besides thief).

All mustelids are playful; perhaps they are among the most playful of all the carnivores, engaging in play even when they become adults.

Who hasn’t enjoyed the antics of the otters at the local zoo, or watched a nature show where a squirming ball of fur breaks apart to form individual weasels? While a considerable part of play is a characteristic of juvenile behavior, mustelids generally show play behaviors even as adults.

Ferrets, being domesticated polecats, hang on to some of their juvenile traits as they get older. Play is one of those traits; even ferrets a decade old can -- and will -- play when the mood strikes them. Again, this is a behavior that comes from deep within the ferret, and one not easily suppressed.

Continued on the Ferret Games Part 2