Tantrum!?

[ellebelle]

Hi

Am a new Ferret owner (day 4) and would like to ask...

Do Ferrets through tantrums?

Skinny Jimmy as he is now known has been pretty good up until approx. 2 hrs ago...
He was waiting at the cage door, let him out while I do the cleaning, change water and put him in some breakfast.
Had a good 2 hrs running around, then put himself back in the cage.

had a nibble, drink and back out again...
He started to slow down, so took himself back to the cage.
I closed the door...

He went into scratch the bars overdrive, flipped his food bowl, pooped in a corner (has been using litter box really well till then) then dug all the water out of his bowl (open type attached to the side bars) rolled in it, pee'd, rolled in that, threw himself into 'liquid floppy slinky body' mode...
then again went into scratch the living daylights out of the cage base.!

We have a dig box but he has taken no interest in it...
We rehomed him being told he is just over 1 yr old...

Am I dealing with a Ferret Teenager?

[unclejoe]

sounds like cage rage, and yup. they do have their moods... I had one of my faves named Scamp that could go 5-6 hrs without a nap. He would move litter boxes around and tear up the newspaper in the cage if he wasn't ready for bed. I currently have Lilly who will also shred paper and dig in the water bowl when she wants out.

[Corvidophile]

Yeah, they do get upset sometimes! Some of them grow out of it, some keep at it for years.

[ellebelle]

Ok thankyou...
took him another hour to finish messing up his bedding...then moved it all...dumped a toy in his litter box and kind of popped/barked at anyone that moved!

[PatienceTheVirtue]

That's cute, beyond the absolute menace part, haha.

My boy digs at the bars, throws his (breakable and heavy!) food bowls off the higher shelves, tips the water, and flings litter if we don't let him out soon enough after he wakes during the day. This often occurs at 6am when my PM shift boyfriend is trying to sleep after working, and a few hours before my alarm for nursing classes goes off. We don't appreciate it for sure! My girl couldn't care less, though. I guess she figures he has it covered!

[unclejoe]

May 12, 2020 21:01:35 GMT -5 PatienceTheVirtue said:

That's cute, beyond the absolute menace part, haha.

My boy digs at the bars, throws his (breakable and heavy!) food bowls off the higher shelves, tips the water, and flings litter if we don't let him out soon enough after he wakes during the day. This often occurs at 6am when my PM shift boyfriend is trying to sleep after working, and a few hours before my alarm for nursing classes goes off. We don't appreciate it for sure! My girl couldn't care less, though. I guess she figures he has it covered!

One thing that reduces noise from cage rage is to put an old towel under the pans in a ferret/critter nation cage.