Vacation with Ferrets?

[Deleted]

So.. my aunt lives about an hour and a half north of me. Twice a year, she goes on vacation with my uncle and I stay at their house for the week to watch the place and take care of their two boston terriers (who are their children, basically).

Their next vacation is coming up in May, but this time around I have to decide what to do with my ferrets for that week. My Mom and I have been arguing about this for awhile now and I guess I'd just like some outside opinions.

I had originally planned to take all three of them with me. They have a very very large bathroom in their house, so I was going to take their old superpet cage with a ton of blankies and toys and let them have run of the bathroom while I was there. I'm not sure if that would stress them out, though (sitting in a carrier for that long, then being put into a new room for a week, then coming back..). My mom is dead set against this option anyways, because she is determined to believe that the ferrets will poop all over the carpet (whole house is carpeted, even the bathroom), then escape only to be eaten by the dogs.

My only other option is to leave them at home, where my Mom swears to watch over them. I'm scared of that, though, because she's an incredibly busy woman and I just have this feeling that she won't give them their playtime and I'll come home to stressed fuzzies and a destroyed cage/bedroom. I also know that she won't physically sit in my room and play with them. She'll let them out, leave and shut the door for an hour, then come back and put them in the cage. They are still kits and while I've done the best I can to ferret proof my room, I'm still afraid that, unsupervised, they'll find something to get into and get sick or injured.


What do YOU guys think? Would you bring them along or not?

[Deleted]

I personally say yes...take them. We take our ferrets with us when we travel (only if we're driving to another city or state...haven't experienced talking them on an airplane yet). I don't trust many people with talking care of our ferrets properly and that have the ability to catch illnesses.

Unlike most animals, ferrets seem to have the opposite reaction to traveling...NEW PLACES TO EXPLORE ;D Our guys love it. They do miss their home (you can tell when they get back), but they don't stress out.

I would suggest buying a soft-sided crate/kennel for the car ride. They will have much more room (definitely more comfortable than a carrier). I have this one for the car (I think I have either the 500 or 700 model): www.petco.com/product/10028/PETCO-Home-and-Travel-Portable-Canvas-Crate.aspx

What I like about this one is that it has a holder and hole for a water bottle, it has pockets to hold some of their things, and it has room for a good sized litterbox, bowls for food, and I figured out how to pin up both a cube bed and a hammock in there (using the bars on the side and the velcro in there).

I then bought a travel cage for them, too. The one I bought folds, so it's easy to travel with. For some reason, they don't have the one that's half of the height as this one (I bought it from ferret.com), but this is basically the same thing, but taller: www.ferret.com/item/marshall-mansion-ferret-home/650715/

You have to be on your game though when traveling with them. Most of the places I have gone with them have not been ferret-proof, so we have to watch them like a hawk and block off as many areas as possible using what we find (but they tend to find their way around it anyways :. I would definitely bring puppy pads for the area they will be playing in for poopies. Also make sure to bring vaccine proof (if you have it), your vets number, and of vets/emergency vet clinics in the area that take ferrets. You never know what can happen.

Hope this helps :3

[Deleted]

All my ferrets I've had seem to do great while traveling, they go for very long distances in the car often (up to about 7hours straight in the car) and do great, but then again they are used to traveling, I take them everywhere so that makes a difference.

Only going 1 1/2 hours, even ferrets that dont generally travel, I don't see why they cant handle it. If you bring them what you can do is build them up, take them in the car for a short distance, then a lil bit longer, ect.. get them used to the car.

The stress factor really depends on the ferret, some handle new things extremely well while others not.

If your worried about your mom, I would leave them with her. You'll go nuts with worry the whole time your there, stress out over it, I'd just bring them so you can have piece of mind.

Another option is a local ferret shelter, some offer boarding. There you know they will receive the proper care and things they need, you wouldn't have to bring them and can skip the stress of your mother watching them.

I'm very blessed, I am able to bring my kids to the local shelter at any time. I never have to worry, I know they are getting excellent care. We share the same vet, so anything happens she can get them there and have their records. Its great! Especially bc I have a old sick ferret that needs meds couple times a day.

[angelfish]

I brought our guys with us on a recent weekend trip to visit family. A two hour ride each way in a carrier. They spent part of the weekend in the garage, part of it on the porch and part of it in a basement bathroom. They got to play outside and see new places. All of them seemed to have a good time. There were definitely some stress poops, and they seemed happy to be home, but I think they enjoyed it overall.

Before we put them in the car, they got a long playtime where we tired them out and they slept the entire trip, both ways.

We discovered, when we got there, that we were missing the clips to put together their cage so they spent most of their time in their playpen. I was stressed out the entire first night they were in the garage because I was afraid they would figure out how to overturn the playpen and get into goodness-knows-what in the garage, but they were sleeping like angels every time I checked on them.

[Sherry]

If the bathroom is carpeted, odds are yes, they WILL poop on it, and pee, etc. And you will have to keep them separated from the dogs. They are terriers, and terriers were bred as vermin hunters originally. They generally have a strong prey drive.
If you can deal with both of those things, I'd take them along. They'd likely do better with you than without. Short of that, if you wind up leaving them with your mom, do you have someone who can come over to interact with them even an hour a day?

[Deleted]

The entire house is carpeted - kitchen, bathrooms, livingrooms, bedrooms, even the basement! It's a strange type of carpeting though. VERY thin. They say it's indoor-outdoor style carpeting but it's not like the outdoor throw rugs you see that are very thick and coarse. It's very thin and very smooth. I'm not too worried about messes as the carpet is incredibly easy to clean (my Mom, however, is a HUUUUUUUGE clean freak).

Also, I don't think I'd even let them MEET the dogs, much less hang out with them! The ferrets would be kept in the bathroom pretty much the whole time.. there's plenty of room in there for me to play with them.

I tried asking people to come over and play with them for a bit, but they are all afraid of them! I don't know anyone who's handled ferrets before.


Anyways..
I think I will just take them with. I love my Mom and there's no doubt she has good intentions, I just feel very nervous about leaving them home.

[Sherry]

Then I'd take them

[Heather]

My guys love to travel, even if it's to the vets. It's new, that means it's fun. As long as they've got their food, their blankies, their litter and most of all their momma...they're good to go. It's far less stressful to take them with you than to leave them behind and disappear out of their lives for 2 weeks....trust me on that one.
ciao