Sleeping through the Night

[Deleted]

First of all, before I begin I'd just like to say that I'm a first time ferret mommy, and all of the advice you guys have given me thus far has been greatly appreciated.

With that said, this post may get a bit jumbled because I'm exhausted, and haven't slept a full night in over a month.


Just over a month ago, I adopted my first ferret, Dexter, from a friend. He's an awesome ferret. Obedient, playful, sweet, and being with him is such a pleasure. A few weeks after I got him, though, I thought I'd get a friend for him.

I ended up getting Trinity from a pet store. She's a Marshall ferret. The pet store owner said she was born on Dec 5th, which makes her only about 2 weeks younger than Dexter. She's also deaf.

I'm going to be taking them both in to the vet next week for their shots, but already I think something is wrong with her.. She moves very slowly. Dexter runs and jumps like a maniac, dooking and playing. While he's running laps around my room, she just sort of saunters around, sniffing stuff.

Occasionally she'll get riled up as Dexter flies past, and she'll chase him for a while. She definitely does play and when she does it seems normal, but for the most part she is just very slow moving. Should I be concerned?

She also eats like a pig. She is easily half Dexter's size and weight, but eats continually. I keep a bowl of kibble in their cage in case they get hungry between their raw feedings and she is just constantly eating. When the bowl gets empty, she starts gnawing on the ceramic bowl. I get afraid she'll break a tooth and take it out, so she starts gnawing on the litter box. I've looked at her teeth and gums, and nothing appears wrong with them. Teething still? Abscess maybe?

Lastly, the girl just will not sleep through the night. I always try to get them super riled up and play hard just before I go to bed, and when I shut them in for the night, they are usually out within seconds. But she never sleeps for more than an hour at a time and is continually waking me up at night, rattling the cage or gnawing on her dish/litter box.

I am so very tired, but I want her to learn that when the lights are out, it's bed time! Moving them or myself to another room unfortunately isn't an option. Any ideas?

[Sherry]

It's possible she's got something called Waardenburg's syndrome. I've got a couple of those, and they are dolls They are sort of the down's babies of the ferret world in a way. Different symptoms, of course, but generally the same sort of loving attitude.
For her constant chewing, it could well be she's still teething. Is she eating bone well yet? That can help tremendously. I really think I'd leave the kibble out. All that will do is help her get fat. And not a healthy fat.
Growing kits will eat a TON! Combine that with switching the diet(they eat twice as much as they normally would for the first 2-4 months of a raw diet switch) and you've got some hungry babies! Two of my girls just couldn't seem to get enough to eat for quite a while.
As for being up at night, have you tried covering the cage with a heavy blanket/sheet? One that will shut out all light. If it's totally dark, that will help with her sleeping. Otherwise, try some foraging toys, so she has to figure out how to get the treats out of them.
holisticferret60.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=enrichment&action=display&thread=73

[katt]

Oh boy! She sounds like Kenai by day Koda by night! Haha I'm on my phone but I'll be back later with more input.

[Heather]

One thing to remember....ferrets don't necessarily sleep at night. There is a lot of rumbling, scritching and even playing done during the night. My guys are right next door to my bedroom and there is the constant scritching of little feet scurrying up tubes, across the floor, rattling of cage bars and doors, the odd scuffle. The other night they got into a cage war....Fun-Go and Odin. How they managed to be in the right place at the right time I've no idea...but they were busy slapping each other through the bars and Fun-Go was just screaming at Odin. I had to get up and break up that battle brats . They've been living in cages that have been side by side for....oh...a couple of years now, and nothing. I know that Odin probably slapped Fun-Go (he's real sh** disturber, he may be old but he's a brat). You can try putting on a blanket over the top of the cage but my brats just reach up and pull it off. It does keep them occupied for awhile though ;D ;D ;D
ciao

[Sherry]

Just had a thought. Not sure if it's viable in your situation. When I was still introducing Suki to a group, she still had her own cage in my bedroom at night, and would tantrum off and on, and then get busy upsetting everything she could get her little paws on, banging the litter box, etc.
I just moved cage and all across the hall to the bathroom for the night, and closed the door. In the morning, the cage came back into the bedroom. It was a right royal pain in the butt, since it was a medium sized superpet with no wheels, but I slept ;D

[Heather]

I can't imagine having fuzzies sleeping in my bedroom...I woudn't get any sleep. Fun-Go last night decided that he wasn't happy with the sleeping arrangement...sent him to bed too early....I don't know what burr was up his butt but he decided that after no one paid any attention to him after drowning his blankies (he does this all the time, then no one has any water) that maybe the foodbowl which was in the holder on the second floor needed to be somewhere else. He kicked it, pulled it and finally ripped it out of the holder (I can't wait until he figures out how to do this to a water bowl ....they will get a bottle yet ) He then proceeded to throw it around the cage, until he got it to fit down the ramp in the FN. He then proceeded to jam it in the litter box.....then the ultimate insult...he pooped in it. He was in a real mood last night. Sometimes having smarter fuzzes just isn't worth it
ciao

[goingpostal]

Mar 14, 2011 14:20:56 GMT -5 Heather said:

I can't imagine having fuzzies sleeping in my bedroom...I woudn't get any sleep.

x2, it's bad enough having them next door! Mine seem to get up and run around about 11pm, 2am and 5am. Running through tunnels, wrestling, shoving litter pans around, I finally had to take away Pandora's precious golf balls because it's just too dang loud on hardwoods, she'd hide them and then bring them back out at 3am. Caged or loose, they run on their own schedule and make a racket.

For your other, she doesn't sound abnormal. I have a couple who get very revved up dooking and nuts and some who just wander around exploring. If she isn't lethargic or sleeping all the time I wouldn't worry too much. You can get her checked out when she hits the vet, just make sure you aren't getting rabies and distemper at once, if you want yours to get both, get them spaced out.

[Sherry]

Sounds like Fun-go really knows how to throw a good tantrum, doesn't he

[Deleted]

Yeah, my girls never sleep through the night. They take naps, wake up, make noise, another nap, etc. I honestly don't think there's much you do besides moving them at night.

[Heather]

Years ago, I thought that the guys slept through the night, other than the odd itching and scratching. At the time I had 4 separate cages, with 12 fuzzes in total. All these guys got along reasonably well during the day and free roamed. I always felt guilty locking them up at night so when the ferret room was complete, I decided (in my infinite wisdom ) to allow the brats to free roam in the ferret room at night. Everything was ok, until all the lights went out and I had just fallen asleep. Well, Porthos decided to do a hammy take over (guessing here as my sweet, gentle Lady "B" was trouncing the daylights out of him) and Lady "B" was at the bottom and didn't like the resulting jostling....the screaming was deafening. So, I go in and sort it out. Just get to sleep, and she's at it again. This time the combatants are high visibility and in the middle of the room. Sprite, the only other female in the house at the time and Lady "B" going at it in full battle. Fur flying everywhere...poop too Both ladies tolerated each other in the space of the house, but in the room....not going to happen. Ok, Sprite, Aremis and Athos...into the cage and locked up. Climb into bed...may have slept an hour (doubting this). Huge crash, more screaming...running in figuring that someone has dumped a cage or something....nope. Lady "B" is on top of the cage...she's dumped the clean laundry on the floor, hamper and all (how strong are these brats, it's all I could do to carry it up from the basement ). The screaming, she's on top of the cage poking at the guys in the hammy....you've got it she and Sprite are at it again. End of experiment...everybody is back in their cages and mom gets to sleep the rest of the night
ciao

[Deleted]

Heather your stories are the best. Made my day a bit brighter

[goingpostal]

Lol @ Heather! Yeah, it's never a good sign when you come in to poop. I've had some bad, get me running screaming going on sometimes, get all the way upstairs and there they are, hissing and screaming over a dang hammock.

Your story made me remember back when I had Tweek, his favorite thing to do was scratch at their gate, it's plexi and flexes a bit so when he got going it really made a lot of noise, and naturally everyone else picked that habit right up, I didn't cage them at night but when they started in, I'd have to go in, grab the offender, put him/her and some food in the cage, go back to bed. Get to sleep, 30 minutes later, "pound, pound, pound". ARRRGGGHH, get up, grab the ferret. No glasses, way too asleep, open cage, toss in this ferret. Rinse, repeat. Took me awhile to figure out the females could squeeze out the top of that cage if they wanted to. I was putting the same d*mn ferret away several times a night. ;D ;D

[katt]

Ok so Koda used to be TERRIBLE. He would wake me up several times a night every single night making a raucous. Banging toys against the cage, kicking his water dish, biting and rattling cage bars, digging the textured plastic of the FN cage pans. I would scream, take him out, play with him, tire him out, hiss, ignore him.

Are they playing around? Or trying to get attention? If the latter, then IGNORE them. Yelling at them, or acknowledging them in any way will only make it worse. They are like toddlers. Bad attention = better than no attention. If the first, not a whole lot that you can do.
Either way some things that help are...
Putting vinegar on the cage bars (reduced cage biting/rattling)
Put soft, non-noisy toys in the cage for night time
Play with them SUPER hard several times during the day, and again VERY VERY hard right before bedtime
take some NyQuill and buy earplugs ;D

Do you have stairs? Making them chase a teaser toy up and down stairs is a GREAT way to tire them out!

[Deleted]

I definitely think I will start leaving the kibble out. I was hesitant to give them any to begin with, I just don't want them to go hungry. My schedule can get sort of unpredictable and sometimes I'm several hours late getting home and delivering dinner.

Dexter sleeps throughout the night. Once he's out, he's out! Occasionally I hear their little feet moving around as they grab a drink or use the potty, but that doesn't bother me. So far they haven't really gotten up at night to play or fight (I just jinxed myself). Just Trinity gets up and the continual "clank-clank-clank" of her teeth against her dishes/litter box is what drives me bonkers. I can't yet discern whether or not she's looking for attention or if her teeth are bothering her or what. If her teeth are bothering her, is there anything I can do to relieve her pain?

I did try putting a blanket over their cage one night. It was a thin blanket because I didn't want it to get super hot and stuffy in their cage, and somehow they managed to pull the entire thing INSIDE the cage. Of course it fell to the floor and got soaked in their water dish and covered in poop. I haven't tried yet with a heavier blanket.. lol

Thanks for the tips everyone.. will try a few new things and hope to get some sleep tonight.


(on an unrelated note, I caught Dexter today dipping his paws in the water dish outside of their cage, getting them wet, then wiping them off on the towel it sits on before going in his cage to use the potty.. SO. FREAKIN. CUTE!!)

[tinytippytoes]

Like I said before so glad I'm deaf