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Post by Jeremy's Boggle on Nov 15, 2013 0:41:02 GMT -5
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Post by Heather on Nov 15, 2013 0:45:39 GMT -5
I will warn everyone....for all the fun we've had with posting our little one's antics we don't advocate this behaviour. This fall I lost one of my wee ones to a fall. It wasn't more than 2 ft from the ground. She hit her back on a shelf. The next 3 weeks were a living h*ll, for me, for the little one that was injured. She was on bedrest, chiropractic, reiki, muscle massages, we even attempted to get her to an acupuncturist (the vet refused to see her because she was a ferret). The nerve damage was too extensive, paralysis and severe muscular cramping and contractions were the results as the nerves in her spine atrophied and died. My vet could not confirm how long it would be until the nerves stopped causing her severe pain if ever. The decision was to allow her to go to the bridge. My little girl was only 18 months old. Do not encourage your little ones to do what seems to come natural to them. If you find them cage climbing remove the object that is allowing them to do this. We cannot protect them from themselves, we can only try but believe me the guilt and the pain is almost unbearable. ciao
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Post by fretki on Nov 15, 2013 4:26:17 GMT -5
really nice! this is ferret-habitat evolution ;-P first a cage with playpen, half a room and then who knows: a room? ...the day will come when they will conquer the house and yes I can also only warn you to keep an eye on climbing ferrets! I adopted a ferret with a split tongue and hip problems from a serious drop at her previous home... the hip problems don't get better with age, but this doesn't stop her from her climbing projects -.-
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Post by Jeremy's Boggle on Nov 15, 2013 9:13:15 GMT -5
I will warn everyone....for all the fun we've had with posting our little one's antics we don't advocate this behaviour. This fall I lost one of my wee ones to a fall. It wasn't more than 2 ft from the ground. She hit her back on a shelf. The next 3 weeks were a living h*ll, for me, for the little one that was injured. She was on bedrest, chiropractic, reiki, muscle massages, we even attempted to get her to an acupuncturist (the vet refused to see her because she was a ferret). The nerve damage was too extensive, paralysis and severe muscular cramping and contractions were the results as the nerves in her spine atrophied and died. My vet could not confirm how long it would be until the nerves stopped causing her severe pain if ever. The decision was to allow her to go to the bridge. My little girl was only 18 months old. Do not encourage your little ones to do what seems to come natural to them. If you find them cage climbing remove the object that is allowing them to do this. We cannot protect them from themselves, we can only try but believe me the guilt and the pain is almost unbearable. ciao My heart broke for you when i heard about this terrible accident. As a side note my 6ft tall son was on a step stool trying to get her down when I took the picture. I am truly paranoid about an accident like what happened with your wee girl will befall Usha or Scratch as they are avid climbers/leapers. Part of me envies all of those whose ferrets can run 24/7, the other part knows it just isn't possible for safety reasons here.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 15, 2013 13:15:53 GMT -5
Yup, climbing ferrets would soon be out of that corral. Especially where the fence is close to the cage. The cornere there just gives them hand holds to climb.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 15, 2013 13:51:10 GMT -5
I'm so sorry to hear that, Heather. My ferrets are jumpers, which worries me to death. They have a double ferret nation and I would be lying if I said they haven't jumped out of the top level more than once. Scares the heck out of me- but thankfully I now have blankets on the bottom to break the fall in case they do it again. Other than cage jumping, they don't climb or jump off of anything else.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 15, 2013 15:27:15 GMT -5
Fuzz is my climber, scares the h*ll out of me
My 2 babies Ms. Daisy and Mrs. Beasley are flyers.... If they are on the desk, chair or cage when I am putting them up or cleaning they just fly through the air and grab on to me, they have missed a few times. They still get put up at night and getting them in the cage and the door closed is always a circus. I told john with should play flight of the bumble bee as theme music for that activity and the night Sir Waffles wants up with them it really gets crazy
Peanut has a new game. When .i start my night time cleaning he likes to get up on their desk playground and wait fir me to bend over than he jumps and grabs on to either my back or butt and holds on while I do whatever I'm doing. John thinks it's funny as h*ll, I've stopped trying to fight it lol
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Post by Deleted on Nov 15, 2013 17:11:19 GMT -5
Haha- my ferts do that too. They'll be in the top level and I will bend over to clean the bottom level and there they go- climbing down my back and jumping into the floor. They also like climbing on my arms and up my shoulders when I stick my hand in the cage. Crazy animals!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2013 9:59:25 GMT -5
Libby! Please please take video of that. I would love to see your crazy ferts holding onto your back while you work.
If I get really low to the floor and curl up in a ball, my Candy will climb up and down my back. Its hard to stay still though because she tickles the heck out of me.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2013 11:03:39 GMT -5
I have my ferrets in my room and let them out most of the day, when I'm in the room with them I sometimes lie on my bed and Javik will come darting up onto my bedside table and leap onto my chest and then for dancing around my bed. Other times I'll lie on my stomach on the floor and they both climb all over me and play with each other on my back lol
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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2014 8:52:36 GMT -5
Ok, they won... They now have the ENTIRE office area. I did go through and raise all wires/plugs off the floor (they're mounted to the underside of the desk now). I open the gate in the morning and we have moved most of their toys to the open area. They now have access to the carpeted stairs. There are closed doors keeping them in this area. They quickly got bored with the ferret room and I can't have that. When I did this, I noticed they are now pouncing on each other, dooking, dancing and just going crazy. It is the most awesome thing I've ever experienced. When my dogs are outside, I've even started bringing them up to the main floor to let them have a run. My 3 sables slowly walk, but my DEW goes bonkers - he practically does backflips. Its funny because now they have a space that is HUGE and yet after a few hours they go right back to their cage to go to sleep.
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Post by RedSky on Apr 16, 2014 12:25:19 GMT -5
this is ferret-habitat evolution ;-P first a cage with playpen, half a room and then who knows: a room? ...the day will come when they will conquer the house It's happening already! haha I'm glad you can give your little ones so much room. Do they not get along with the dogs? I'm holding off getting ferrets to keep my rodents safe, and I'm not sure how my dog would feel but he's not a little thing and really clumsy.
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Post by bitbyter on Apr 16, 2014 12:57:32 GMT -5
Try putting blankets that they sleep on down where you don't want them to go to the bathroom. That usually will stop them and remind them to use the box.
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Post by katt on Apr 17, 2014 2:36:36 GMT -5
When people ask me why I don't get a baby gate.....THIS is why. rofl
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Post by Deleted on Apr 17, 2014 8:04:51 GMT -5
My 12 year old dog, Lisa, was originally taught to hunt small creatures. She wasn't very good at it and was then abused and abandoned by her owners. We rescued her at 1.5 years old and noticed that we couldn't have her around cats, squirrels, moles, muskrats, etc without her trying to "hunt" them. She's brought me more than one dead mole from our yard and within the first year that we moved to our current home, we found her chewing on a dead muskrat. I won't risk it.
The baby gates aren't for the ferrets, they're to keep the dogs contained in certain areas of the house. I don't let the ferrets out to free roam the basement office unless all doors are closed and locked and I am 100% sure there will be zero interaction between Lisa and the ferrets.
Our other dog Maddy has met the ferrets and they are fine with each other, but Maddy is very large and clumsy and my worry is that she'll accidentally squash one of the ferrets with her big old paws. Safer for all if they just stay apart.
There is of course the whole predator/prey issue. In the wild, you wouldn't see wolves and ferrets hanging out. Some people do it but it is risky and I have read more than a few stories from ferrents who let their dogs and ferrets play, and lost a ferret by accident. Sometimes dogs just play too rough. My guys certainly don't know their own strength and all it takes is one mistake.
So, like I said, I won't risk it. Two floors in my house. Two breeds of furbabies. One breed per floor.
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