I'm having second thoughts about having ferrets as pets...?

Question

Ok, my wife is addicted to animals and now that we are becoming parents we intend to have also a pet. Some friends have a ferret and he's really playful, they have a baby too and the dam ferret hgets along perfectly with the kid. But I'm thinking maybe that's not a good idea in the first year of the baby. And ferrets? How many ppl have ferrets as pets? Do they need special carring?

Answer 1

All I can say is that ferrets are some cute and loving animals and are perfect as pets. See here for other info and added references on ferrets. Read and get informed. I think you have nothing to be afraid of :)

http://www.dari-bazaar.com/wp/89/ferrets/

Answer 2

Ferrets are wonderful pets, but not for everyone and not in every situation. I would certainly advise against getting a ferret if there are young children (personally I'd say under six years) in the house. Ferrets are like people and have different personalities, but most of them are very lively and curious. That could certainly scare a small child. Some ferrets bite, some of them not hard, it's more in play than anything, but a babies skin is delicate.
Ferrets love to steal things, and that includes pacifiers. The ferret could chew on the rubber and end up at the vets for surgery because of a bowel obstruction. I know of one ferret who decided that the baby would be a neat thing to steal and drag into its "hidey hole". The ferret latched onto the baby and started tugging while the baby screamed bloody murder.
Then there is the aspect of health and hygiene. Though ferrets are certainly trainable and will use the litter box when in the cage, a lot of them are not so 100% when out and about, so there will be accidents. Where there's ferrets there's poop and ferret hair.
Ferrets are also very time consuming and can run up quite the vet bill, especially as they age.
So, if I were you, I'd most definitely wait a little while before I got into the ferret thing. I'd hate to see you go through all the trouble and spend all that money for the animal and the things it'll need just to find out that it was a bad idea. Lots of ferrets end up in shelters and/or rescues because of situations like yours, except they had owners that didn't think it through before they got the animals.
I'm glad to see that you are doing your homework before you commit to one of these incredible little critters. Thank you in the name of the ferts.

Answer 3

I kept ferrets for over 10 years. They are absolutely wonderful pets. Sadly I've recently had to rehome my remaining 7 because my husband and I travel an awful lot and it wasn't fair to keep them. Ferrets take a little more work than animals such as cats, dogs and guinea pigs. They need to be kept clean and have regular handling, but the rewards are emense. Our children were around 4 and 7 when we first got ferrets so I don't know much about how a ferret would deal with a baby. However, when toddlers get to the grabbing stage they can be a bit rough which may cause a ferret to nip. I wouldn't leave the baby and the ferret unsupervised until the child has learnt how to handle and animal. For all that they are great fun and very very rewarding to have as pets.

I loved being a ferret owner, one of the biggest problems I found was getting people to care for them whilst I was away. That's why I don't have them anymore.

Answer 4

Ferrets make wonderful pets! But i would defiantly wait until you have settled into life with a child and are sure you would be able to take care of a pet properly before getting one. It would be very sad if you got a pet and then realised that you didn't have time for it and had to give it away.

Ferrets are very playful but they do require a fair bit of care. Do a lot of research on the net and perhaps buy a book on them before you decide.

Good luck!

Answer 5

I own two ferrets, and in my opinion if you want to care for them properly, you need to spend a LOT of time on them every day. A lot of ferret owners compare them to owning 2 year old children. They can be very overwhelming sometimes.

With a new baby on the way, I would discourage you from getting a ferret for many reasons. A new baby is so time consuming on its own that I fear the ferrets would suffer because of it. They simply cannot stay in a cage all day, and if you let them be free roam, you're usually chasing them around the whole time they are out of the cage.

Answer 6

I have a ferret, and they are the funniest kind of pets. Mine was very friendly and loved to play. I say there a fine pet and they are trainable in the first few years. You can find books in the library or at a pet store to train them properly.

Answer 7

I have one ferret who I adore!!! I also have 2 daughters....12 and 9. Before I got my ferret I read EVERYTHING I could on them and i still wasn't prepared for the amount of care they take!
It took me almost 3 months of dedication and persistance to get Freddie to use his litter box both inside his cage and in the house, this was soooo frustrating and even now he doesn't have a 100% hit rate. With a new baby in the house the last thing you need is to be cleaning up ferret poop from every corner of the house!
Ferrets need at least 4 hours out of cage time each day but they aren't like a cat or dog who will be happy to sit by your feet or lie by the fire...they need some serious heavy play time to wear them out cos they can sleep for around 18 hours a day so when they wake up they have masses of energy to get rid of. This will involve lots of toys such as tubes for them to burrow in, old towels for them to hide under, a dig box filled with rice or sand,cat toys etc. and I'm sure you'll have enough human toys with your new baby without ferret toys to add to the chaos!!
You will have to ferret proof the room you will let your ferret out in because they can sqeeze into the smallest gaps and get stuck, they can climb and knock off all your photos or ornaments, they like to chew rubber so you'll have to move your babies teething toys so your ferret can't chew them....oh and if they do chew rubber and get it stuck in their very small intestines then it will be either a dead ferret or a large vet bill you'll be facing.
Ferrets need a special diet high in protein and fat and you should feed them special ferret kibble which they love to hide all over the house so when your baby starts crawling he may find nice peices of ferret food that he could swallow or choke on.
Ferrets need a large cage cos they need somewhere to sleep somewhere to eat and poop and somewhere to play. This will need a good clean out once a week with bedding changes and litter pans washed thoroughly or it will start to smell. Talking of smell.....ferrets have their own musky smell which you will either love or hate and if they haven't been de scented (I live in the UK and it's illegal to de scent ferrets here) the smell will be evil when he sprays like a skunk if he's excited or scared...YUM!!!
Having given all these "negative" pointers I will say that Freddie is the best pet I've ever had, he gives me hours of fun with his boundless energy and weasil war dances, he loves to cuddle on my knee and I wouldn't swap him for the world, but I don't think it would be a good idea to get one with a new baby on the scene....you'll have enough to do when he/she comes along and you almost certainly won't have the time to devote to your fuzz butt.
There are many other things i could tell you about ferrets but i hope I've given you the overveiw you needed to make your decision. Good luck with the new baby xx

Answer 8

I have a pet ferret. They are very playful, but they stink very bad. No matter how may times you clean their cage the smell never goes away

Answer 9

And I also know that ferrets are verrrrrry busy and inquisitive creatures. You cannot take your eyes off of them for one minute because they are into everything. And you cannot let them run loose in your house while you are out or they will destroy everything that isn't nailed down. They chew and they steal small items and hide them in their secret little stashes.