Achievement Unlocked: Becoming a Ferrent

[Deleted]

This past Thursday my husband and I finally adopted two ferrets.

Since photobucket hates me today I hope these work...

Here's Appa:
i922.photobucket.com/albums/ad69/lizardwiz/Ferrets/16174672_10208528472591543_674034762346598076_n.jpg?t=1485115004

And Sakura:
i922.photobucket.com/albums/ad69/lizardwiz/Ferrets/16142797_10208528472631544_5846458991597806190_n.jpg?t=1485115011

Then both of them:
i922.photobucket.com/albums/ad69/lizardwiz/Ferrets/16142459_10208528494552092_4543331945260075614_n.jpg

We adopted them from a couple on CL that could no longer look after them. They also had two elderly ferrets and they just had a baby so these two were too much for them to handle. Luckily, they had all their original paperwork from Petco. They will both be two this May. The lady we adopted them from was a bit picky about who she was adopting them out to and very adamant in explaining how to care for them. She definitely seemed to care for these guys and wanted to make sure they were going to a good home.
She stressed how ferrets will imprint on their food and pretty much if you don't feed them what she fed them they would starve themselves...She was feeding them a mix of Evo Turkey and Chicken formula cat food and Blue Wilderness Natural Evolutionary Diet. She gave us a big bag of food too to hold us out until we could get them some more kibble...We do plan on switching them over to a raw diet. We are looking to start that sometime next week since we are going camping this weekend. I think Appa might have a better transition to raw than Sakura. I've tried giving them some freeze dried chicken treats and Appa really liked them but Sakura wasn't really interested...
I'm not sure if these guys have ever been to a vet before. I asked them if they had a vaccination or vet history and they said since they are inside pets only they don't need vaccinations. Which I understand the controversy of vaccinations and people's choice to opt out of them but it worries me that they may have never been to the vet before. They do have a vet appointment on February 4th. 
We have a ferret nation for them and they like digging at the fleece liners I put in there and crawling underneath them. I made them a couple of hammocks, a space tunnel, and a tent. Sakura really likes sleeping in the space tunnel or in the hammocks. Appa likes to sleep in a blanket or in a hammock.
Both are litter trained and know where the litter box is but I was having some issues with them pooping in the corner on the shelf above the litter box. I tried the vinegar lemon spray and Sakura didn't like it but Appa didn't seem to care. Last night I threw a couple of my old T-shirts on the shelf and they haven't gone there since. I hope that does it. 
Right now they are both a bit overwhelming. I hope its just because they're in a new place and still getting used to us. We are renting a condo and got permission from our landlord to get ferrets but she doesn't want them running around the condo. We got them a portable playpen that we've been letting them play in when we get home from work. After about an hour or so they try climbing the playpen and Appa likes to bite and thrash around trying to get pen door open. Whenever they are in their cage, and not sleeping, they paw at the door to get out but then don't want to be in the playpen. I'm looking at ferret-proofing the room they are in now to let them run around supervised but they are just crazy little things right now. Appa loves the rice dig box I made him so I let them play with that first until they're bored.  Appa seems to like playing more than Sakura while Sakura likes exploring a curling up in a blanket pile. They do enjoy playing in the tent when I put some grocery sacks in there as well as playing with some of the other toys we have for them. It's only been 5 days but are they usually so all over the place? No amount of reading ad prepared me for how hyper these two seem to be. But it didn't take long to fall in love with either of them! 

[LindaM]

As a rule, cage kept ferrets are way more vigorous about exploration when allowed out of their cage. Free-roaming ferrets by comparison, are very mellow. Think of it this way... if you are kept in your room all day, and then allowed out for a short while, wouldn't you also try to get as much done as possible? Caged ferrets are this way, when they get out they must do it ALL, and they must do it NOW. To boot, yours are in a new environment and they would like to acquaint themselves with their surroundings, it's part of their instincts to plot escape routes from trouble and places to safely sleep in and stash their goodies.

My two are free-roam, they only sleep in their cage at night, but they free-roam from the early mornings till midnight, or easily 2am or so on weekends. They're very mellow about things, and go about their business in the day, playing and then taking naps in our bedroom in the drawers they've picked out for themselves. Loki was free-roam long before Athena, as we have had him the longest, when I had gotten Athena she was cage kept within her first 2 weeks, and after that I allowed her free-roam. She mellowed right out, she used to be CRAZY and you had to watch her every second of every moment, now she goes about her business without hassles.

You can use a little drizzle of salmon oil or raw egg yolk on the food to help lure them into eating. Some transition easier than others, and sometimes they all transition the same but each are pickier about one meat than another. You can try to rehydrate some of the FDR treats too and see if he will take it then. I used rehydrated FDR at first as a transition to raw for Athena, and slowly mixed some of that in with normal raw until it took. To this day both of mine still enjoy getting rehydrated FDR as food, and get FDR treats, but it can work out a bit costly for people sometimes compared to just doing normal raw.

[azaelia]

dont worry about feeling overwhelmed. i researched ferrets for a year or two untill my circumstances allowed me to rescue 3. i was so overwhelmed it was unreal! i felt so out of my depth, for a week or two i considered taking them back! its now been just over two years & they;re the best thing i ver did!

[Deleted]

Don't scare me Azaelia lol this is now into the third year of research and preparation and hopeing to be ready to purchase the fuzz butts soon (couple of months or so hopefully, I can't wait) I'm sure there will be some panic as knowing what you should be doing is different to putting it into practise, wanting to make sure you cover everything and not forget anything as well as all the quirks, behaviours and training you can only discover with the little guys in your home

[unclejoe]

Get ferrets, then learn, like I did. Not the best plan.
Congrats on your new little ones. They are really cute. Appa looks a little like Scamp when he was a kid. Honestly, getting "used" ferrets from someone who actually cared about them is a good way to get started. A lot of the hard work like litter training has been done.
Photobucket has been rough on me for a while. I have over 2000 pics on 2 users, plus i have crappy internet and at times it has taken mean hour to find a post a pic here.
When you post pics, use the IMG link, or the BB code on other hosting sites.
We feed a mix of kibble and raw, and we used to feed evo. It's a decent choice, but we've eliminated anything with peas which could contribute to kidney/bladder stones. All raw is best, of course. Have you tried wetting/rehydrating the freeze dried treats? I tried to give ours Stella and Chewy's freeze dried raw and they never even sniffed it twice until I wetted it down.
As for switching...I adopted a pair from an older couple who did care for them, as they came with vet records, but they said the ferts would only eat Cat Chow. I had them on soups in a couple days. I ground some of their kibble to add a familiar flavor then gradually reduced it.
Welcome to the group.

[Deleted]

Feeling overwhelmed with new pets is totally normal and doesn't mean it'll stay that way, so try not to have any drastic worries or think any mistakes were made and give it a bit of time. It sounds like you are going to be an amazing guardian, and that they didn't have too bad a start for Craigslist ferrets, which is helpful. Congrats and thank you for taking them in! I have never seen one with a pattern quite like Appa; it's lovely.

[Deleted]

Jan 23, 2017 17:30:36 GMT -5 LindaM said:

As a rule, cage kept ferrets are way more vigorous about exploration when allowed out of their cage. Free-roaming ferrets by comparison, are very mellow.

Oooh, my ferret was free roam before (still is) and is extremely mellow.....I wonder if that contributed along with him being deaf!

[Deleted]

Thanks for the encouragement!
We've had them for about a month now and I'm not completely overwhelmed anymore. We have started letting them run around the room they are in as well as in the bathroom. We are working on leash training so we can take them out more and go for a "walk" around the house and maybe even outside.
We got them to the vet last week and they are both healthy and doing well. We were lucky that our vet was able to get the ferret only distemper vaccination. He also seems to be supportive of our choice to do a raw diet.
However, I just recently decided to go back to school so we will be moving soon. It could be a month from now or 6 months for now so we are looking at holding off on switching. I did make some soup for them before we found out we were going to move and they both took to it pretty well.
I have not tried reconstituting the freeze-dried meat for Sakura. I'll have to give it a try and see if she likes that better.
We are starting to get the hang of things but Appa is really being a butt. He is so energetic and we try to let them out as often as we can and try to tire him out but it seems like he never runs out of energy. He's also started biting rather hard and more often. It seems to be mostly during play but he'll come up and chomp down on our ankles. He has not drawn blood but it really does hurt. We don't want him to associate his cage or carrier as a place for punishment but every sinbin we try to put him in he gets out of. He's a real joy to play with but we really can't take the biting.

Here's a cute picture of Appa while I was weighing him

http://instagr.am/p/BQD_LdugXxt

[LindaM]

Such a lovely fuzzbutt. It sounds like you guys are doing really good, and it's wonderful to hear that you have access to a vet that is supportive and open to listening!

For the sin bin.. you can get a different type carrier and try that, just make sure he can always see his actual carrier and that that one is very inviting to go into by comparison. I have 2 carriers in our bedroom.. one for the cat, and the other for the ferrets.. the cat had been using the ferrets' one, so we bought him a big hard shell one with a lovely, fluffy bed inside. All three of them will play and sleep inside those two carriers and have no issues at all when we put them inside, even when Athena was getting sin bin training for her biting.

As for rehydrated Freeze-Dried Raw, it's definitely a choice that's open to you if you want to do raw and can afford going that route. It's pretty easy and most ferrets will easily love eating it right off, plus you can do this and keep doing it until you've moved and then try switching over to frakenprey. It's good to get the ferrets used to FDR in case of an emergency and you can only feed them using that, FDR is a good emergency food you can keep in your ferret medical box too. My two ferrets have a split raw diet, I offer frankenprey, rehydrated FDR, and Frozen raw on a weekly basis. FDR just tends to be a more expensive option, and if you do just that or frozen raw grinds, you still need to brush the ferrets' teeth regularly, unlike with the raw bone-in meals that will clean their teeth.

I use Stella & Chewys as my brand of FDR.

Loki happily lounging like a lazy bum in the cat's hard shell carrier in our bedroom (I used a small hard shell as sin bin). Usually there's a blanket and some toys too, but someone drug them off... So if you show there's difference between the carrier and sin bin, you ought to be okay.

[Deleted]

It's ok. I have had ferrets before (years ago) and I still feel a little overwhelmed sometimes. So much has changed since then. I have a younger ferret and a 6 year old now. My young one came off CL too. The 6 year old was from a rescue. I am actually adopting 2 more from the same small rescue who were on raw, but not much info was given on them. I am so excited! There is always something new to learn. Enjoy your 2 ferrets. Beware of ferret math though. lol

[joseph]

Feb 27, 2017 17:39:41 GMT -5 @rosethejinx said:

 Beware of ferret math though. lol

FERRET MATH!! Hahahaha! I rescued 2 from a really bad situation 8 months ago, after seriously debating whether to get ferrets again after an 18 year hiatus.... now I have 3 more rescues and 3 purchases, lolololol.