Supplies

Ferret Sleeping Hammock

Remember, the purchase price of your new ferret is only a fraction of the costs that you will incur. Listed below, are some of the items that you will need. While you can probably find most of these at your local pet store, we prefer the savings of shopping online. We get our Marshall pellets, Ferretone and various treats from online sites.

Cage

Bigger is better. Seriously, plan on buying the biggest cage that can fit into your budget. Some can run $300, $400, $500 or more. Hopefully, you will be able to let your ferret (ferrets ?) run loose for part of the day. However, you will need to cage them at night or when you are at work. Since ferrets have so much energy, it seems cruel to confine them to very small spaces. You wouldn’t do that to a pet dog, right ? Craig’s List can be a great source for ferret cages and many times a poor neglected ferret that belongs in it.

Litter Box

Litter boxes come in a few different shapes and sizes. You can choose a pan (like a cat box) or specially designed corner shaped boxes for ferrets. For some reason, ferrets have an uncontrollable urge to poop in corners. If you see your new ferret backing up towards the corner of your room, this is what he intends on doing. These corner shaped litter boxes are specially designed to fit tightly into a corner. It is good to have 3 or 4 of these around the house strategically placed in the common corners of use.

Litter itself come in the form of clay, scented & unscenteed wood chips and recycled newspaper. The newspaper is advertised as dust free which cuts down on sneezing and wheezing.

All of this poo talk reminds me of something. Sometimes new ferret owners can not tell the difference in sexes and are not sure what they are looking at. The male ferret’s ‘member’ will be 1/3 of the way up his stomach .. where you may think his belly button is. But, their poo an pee will also give it away. Because of their anatomy, you will notice their poo and pee in puddles that are close together but separate. The female ferret’s waste ends up in just 1 very gross looking puddle.

Hammock

Hammocks are a must for your cage. Hammocks come with clips that conveniently attach to the cage wire frame. Some are open – like the one pictured on this page – and some are enclosed. It is kind of like a suspended sleeping bag for your critter. Please don’t make them sleep on the hard floor or worse yet, in the newspaper or wood chips that they poo in.

Food Dish

Ferrets sometimes like to dig in their food dish, bat it around or even flip it upside down. For these reasons, you want to find one that is fairly heavy.

Water Bowl

Some companies sell water bottles that are attached to the cage (Think like in hamster). Personally, I don’t like these. You will notice that your ferret drinks quite a bit of water. It is much easier for them to lap it up from a bowl and not fight for it drop by drop. Finding a water dish that attaches to the side of your cage is a must.

Toys

Ferrets love to play and they love to play with toys. Balls with bells or rattles inside seem to be the favorite. Some seem to like small stuffed animals. Just be careful that the toy doesn’t have any small plastic eyeballs or something similar that can be swallowed.

Actually, it doesn’t take much for a ferret to entertain themselves. An empty soda can or toilet paper roll will keep them going.

Nail Clippers

At some point, you will need to trim your ferrets nails. I have always used the very same small nail clipper that I use dogs. Just insert the nail and clip carefully.
I have never tried those new fandagled grinder type trimmers that are on during late night commericals.

The hardest part of trimming your ferret’s nails, is holding your rambunctious rascal still. I wrote a quick How-To article to handle just such a situation !

Ferretone

Ferrets go crazy over this stuff and it is good for their diet and fur. Ferretone is a fatty, protein and mineral based syrup that can be dribbled on food or drizzled on their belly. While a ferret licks this goo off of his stomach, he is oblivious to everything else going on around him. I don’t think it tastes as good as the ferrets do, but as I mentioned above, it is great for Trimming Their Nails.

Treats

Experiment with different treats as each ferret will have its own favorites. One of our ferrets ignored most all treats except the crunchies by 8 in 1. Various treats are chicken flavored, jerky inspired or peanut butter flavored. Many other cat or dog treats can be used if they are protein based and not so much grain.