Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2017 20:55:20 GMT -5
Hi folks! I have two fuzzies, one 3 yr old male named Ollie and one (almost) 3 year old female name Peewee. I have had them since they were 5 months old and have gone through all the usual and unusual behavior of raising them.
A little background on their personalities: Ollie is the more calm, loafy one. He rarely acts up or misbehaves other than missing the litter box when he's not in his cage- which is to be expected obviously. He loves belly rubs and interacting with people.
Peewee is definitely the more clever and intelligent of the two. She's more energetic, and always pushes the limits, often to our frustration haha. She's what I feel is a very textbook definition of a ferret's personality. Troublemaker but very sweet.
We have an entire room in our house dedicated to them. We keep them in a cage at night while they sleep, and also when my wife and I are off at work. We let them out while we are home (usually 3+ hours a day after work, and even longer on our days off). Their play room has a dig box, flex tubes, toys, blankets, boxes, bags etc. They have full access to their cage, food, water, and litter while they are out and about playing. When they get tired, they even put themselves to bed in their cage. They're overall very good pets.
My question/problem is this:
Now that they're getting a bit older, they seem to play less with each other. Ollie seems just fine with keeping himself entertained wandering around their room, sniffing and rolling around in bags and blankets, but is always up for wrestling with Peewee when she's in the mood. Peewee on the other hand, despite all the toys and goodies in their room, often ignores all of it and focuses solely on things she cannot have or places she cannot go. Digging has always been a problem for her, digging the carpet until it shreds and scratching at furniture and doors blocking her path from where she wants to go. She gets so fixated on scratching that she doesn't even pay any attention to anything around her. She sometimes doesn't even hear us come in the room when we hear her scratching someplace. I've tried sprays to deter her digging, I've tried engaging with to her to play with me, which works for a short period of time but she loses interest quickly. Her 'time out' crate has been getting lots of use lately as we are trying to correct this behavior. We haven't had to use it in years, back when she was learning it wasn't always appropriate to bite.
She's such a sweet girl, I really don't mean to complain. I'm just trying to figure out what I can do to keep her stimulated and burn off some energy. I feel like she has plenty of toys, as well as a playmate! But instead she chooses to ignore them all and focus on bad behaviors. Does anyone have any thoughts or advice? I'm sorry that was a lot to read. I look forward to hearing from some seasoned experts!
A little background on their personalities: Ollie is the more calm, loafy one. He rarely acts up or misbehaves other than missing the litter box when he's not in his cage- which is to be expected obviously. He loves belly rubs and interacting with people.
Peewee is definitely the more clever and intelligent of the two. She's more energetic, and always pushes the limits, often to our frustration haha. She's what I feel is a very textbook definition of a ferret's personality. Troublemaker but very sweet.
We have an entire room in our house dedicated to them. We keep them in a cage at night while they sleep, and also when my wife and I are off at work. We let them out while we are home (usually 3+ hours a day after work, and even longer on our days off). Their play room has a dig box, flex tubes, toys, blankets, boxes, bags etc. They have full access to their cage, food, water, and litter while they are out and about playing. When they get tired, they even put themselves to bed in their cage. They're overall very good pets.
My question/problem is this:
Now that they're getting a bit older, they seem to play less with each other. Ollie seems just fine with keeping himself entertained wandering around their room, sniffing and rolling around in bags and blankets, but is always up for wrestling with Peewee when she's in the mood. Peewee on the other hand, despite all the toys and goodies in their room, often ignores all of it and focuses solely on things she cannot have or places she cannot go. Digging has always been a problem for her, digging the carpet until it shreds and scratching at furniture and doors blocking her path from where she wants to go. She gets so fixated on scratching that she doesn't even pay any attention to anything around her. She sometimes doesn't even hear us come in the room when we hear her scratching someplace. I've tried sprays to deter her digging, I've tried engaging with to her to play with me, which works for a short period of time but she loses interest quickly. Her 'time out' crate has been getting lots of use lately as we are trying to correct this behavior. We haven't had to use it in years, back when she was learning it wasn't always appropriate to bite.
She's such a sweet girl, I really don't mean to complain. I'm just trying to figure out what I can do to keep her stimulated and burn off some energy. I feel like she has plenty of toys, as well as a playmate! But instead she chooses to ignore them all and focus on bad behaviors. Does anyone have any thoughts or advice? I'm sorry that was a lot to read. I look forward to hearing from some seasoned experts!
