Just got two ferrets and they both act like they have sleep disorder like sids. Has N E 1 ever seen this?

Question

I have two ferrets that I have owned for awhile. I've owned ferrets for a few years now.
However, I got two ferrets last week. They are considerably larger than my first two, and very young, appx three months old.
I am wondering if it is a symptom of a problem when I pick them up and they are sleeping, they act exactly as if they are dead.
I've delivered my share of puppies, and have had to revive some, I used these methods on these little fellas, and they very slowly responded.
Then it took a couple of minutes for them to really act awake.
Its quite warm here, in the 90's, and I keep a fan on their home, its a large three story enclosure, but I'm wondering if it may be the heat that causes them to act like that. My first two ferrets never do that, but they are smaller and older too.
Its pretty scary when it happens and I am wondering if anyone has ever experienced this.

Answer 1

Ferrets go into very deep sleeps and all ferret owners know BOY can they sleep...I have 2 ferrets SPUNKY a 1 1/2y.o Silver Mitt male who is a lighter sleeper and I have BABY BANDIT a 1y.o. Panda who's the runt and is the size of a 3month old ferret and she will sleep through anything...There's a really cool website called WEST VALLEY WUZZLES.COM where u can ask ?'s and they also have 2 24 hour web cams on there ferrets....

Answer 2

Some ferrets will do that, sleep so soundly you could almost think they're dead(check "Ferrets for Dummies" for a direct reference to that) I can actually trim my youngest fuzzies nails without him ever waking up. Turning a fan on a ferret however does NO good what so ever. The cooling effect humans feel from a fan actually comes from sweat evaporating on our skin when the breeze hits it. Ferrets do not sweat, therefore they do not get that same effect. You will have to find different means of cooling your ferts down. Can you get a few pieces of slate or other rock and leave them in the freezer. Put them in the cage and keep changing them frequently. Wrap a dish towel around them before you put them in with your ferts. You could also get a bag of gravel, but the ferrets will most likely chew through that and just make a mess. The way people used to cool rooms in the days before AC's was to blow a fan across a block of ice. You could get a big bag of ice and do the same thing with it. That will actually cool the air down.
Wrapped bottles of frozen water will work too, but the best thing is still to bring them into a cooler room, like the basement. Ferrets do not handle heat well at all. Make sure you get them plenty of cool water to drink and maybe a dish to dip into once in a while. Don't spray or wet your ferrets down though, that can bring the temperature down too quickly.
Ferrets really shouldn't be exposed to temperatures above 80 - 85 degrees Fahrenheit.
Good luck!
I just found this site, pretty much what I just wrote, plus some, check it out:
http://www.cypresskeep.com/Ferretfiles/Summer-FM.htm

Answer 3

This is very normal for all ferrets to do when ferrets go to sleep they drop their body temperature witch makes them go in to a very deep sleep, I remember the very first ferret i ever got i went in to get him out of his cage and he was limp i thought he was dead and started yelling people came running and 5 minute yes 5 minutes later after i am freaking out he opens his eys and looks at me like what the hell is going on i was sleeping i didn't learn it happened with another and i freaked now even though my heart still get they ahh i know to hold them a few second and stroke them and they slowly wake up as their body temp goes up and they are aware something is trying to wake them.

Don't wory as long as they are breathing their fine i know some time it hard to tell but you can.

Answer 4

I don't know about the sleeping. but small animals don't do well with heat, so you need to keep them at a lower temp. An easy way to do this is put a few bricks or large stones in the freezer for a few hours and then scatter them throughout the cage.

Answer 5

It is perfectly normal ferret behavior. My ferrets have both done it once, and they were fine. As long as they are breathing, and they are warm and have pink paw pads, dont be too worried.

Answer 6

my ferretts did this once or twice, and i read in an article about this really deep sleep thing they do where its easy to mistake them for dead, dont remember what they called it though.