So what's good and bad about them?
good: there active fun little carpet sharks
bad: they have a natural mush and can be quite independant.
How to introduce to a dog thats cat-aggressive?
with mine and the dogs we let them greet though the cage first...
then dogs on leash ferrets loose and eventually supervised play.
Ruby isnt a fan of cats but LOVES ferrets!
Where to get one from?
a breeder or rescue are your best choices, but breeders are hard to find.
petstores should be you absolute last choice.
How much do they cost and how much does to cost to own one (how much for a cage, toys, bedding, litter, food?)
cage expect anything between $100-$300, bigger is better (look for the ferret nation)
ferret, $75-$250 (upper end is for fancies liek the angora)
bedding/toys deco...i made all my own from about $20 worth of fleece...i made enough to have one in the cage and one in the laundry...
and i bought a ton of the $1.00 cat balls (the ones with rattles and bells)
pvc pipe is fun for tunnels (and better than the realy expensive ferret tubes that tend to get torn up too easy...)
and many toys can be easily made.
What age is best to get them at?
they develop like puppies and kittens 10-12 weeks is best, most petstores carry marshals farms which sell as young as 6 weeks.
Do they need vaccinates and is important to get them fix, even if you're only going to have one?
MOST ferrets come spay/neutered and descented...
if yours doesnt it NEEDS to be done. ferrets are musk animals and have a scent gland which smells almost as strong as a skunk and they CAN spray (both males and females)
intact male ferretstend to be territorial and agressive and females once they go into heat do not come out unless bred so having an intact female when not a breeder can literally kill her.
in terms of vacinations we did distemper and rabies as babies and then rabies every 3 yrs from then on (mine didnt go outside our yard so no need for the additional) (esnetially same scedual and vac's as a kitten/cat.)
Is it best to have more than one?
YES!
ferrets are active social creatures and no matter how much time you spend with them you will never be able to tire them out wihtout the assistance of another ferret.
ferrets are also extreemly rough players, nipping wrestling scratching ect is all normal play for ferts...these activities of course should be dissuaded when playing with their people...but they need ot get out those more "agressive" playstyles somehow.
having 2 is MUCH better.
What sort of attention, time, care, games for stilmulation do they need?
as much as humanly possible, AT LEAST 3-4 hours out of cage time...MINIMUM
think of it as having a kitten crossed with a puppy crossed with a 2yr old child...they are demanding in terms of time out, but when out, parituclarly if they have a playmate there not all that demanding of YOUR time...
Whats best to feed them?
MEAT...
ferrets origioanlly woudl eat primarily rodents (mice, rats, Rabbits and the occasional chicken)
my suggestion is a high quality kitten food with rabbit or chicken as its base, and avoid corn...
many will tell you NO feed only ferret food...BUT when you look at most brand ferret food the main ingredient is Fish...fish as a main source of protein while natural for the pole cat and fisher is not natural for the ferret and they would very rarely if ever get a fish...
fish in the diet should be limited to only very occasionally as fish will make both their natural musk And their poop smell worse.
What sort of cage is best for them and what to put it in? Bedding, toys, ect..
ferret nation! best ferret cage ever...
in terms of deco, lots of tunnels, hammocks, blankies and simple toys, as well as a litter box for every other level in the cage (any less than that expect accidents.)
toys are easy, ferrets will play with anything, brown paper bags, cerial boxes and cat toys were favorties.
we also had 2 dig boxes, 1, a cardboard box filled with bi-degradable packing peanuts, they LOVED these and would dive through them, of course by the end there were peanuts everywhere but it was great to watch them
2: their dirt box, which was simply a big tupperware tub filled with sterile soil (potting soil washed with bleach, rinsed well and air dryed) this tub was used only in the bathroom and they got to play in that only once a month, Bath day! wed hide toys and cherios in the dirt and theyd have a blast finding them! dirt would go everywhere, they woudl be filthy...thats why it was only on bath day and only in the bathroom.
What to do about the smell?
step 1: make sure you have enough litter boxes (1 per ferret or every 2 levels...these boxes should be easy to get into and situated in the corners of the cage, ferrets naturally choose a corner to go to the bathroom in (and they back in)
step 2: use litter ONLY in the litter boxes, carefresh or yesterdays news work best...corn cob isnt bad either...
for the rest of the cage use lino/fleece blankets or leave with just the base plastic...
if you do this you wont have to worry as much about having to clean the rest of the cage.
step 3: have 2 sets of soft bedding...you want one for the cage 1 for the wash
daily: scoop the litter boxes, pees not too bad as their amonia isnt that strong...poop though needs to begone asap as it can get overwhelming quickly...
remove any accidents imediatly outside of the litter boxes.
if you fill all the corners which dont have litter boxes with toys, blankets and hammocks and keep those boxes scooped you shoudlnt have accidents, ferrets are usually very good about returning to the same corner every time...
weekly: empty litter boxes completly and wash well, i liked to soak in a 10:1 bleach solution, rinse well and air dry, but a vinegar solution or natural based cleaning solution would work just as well
whipe down all the shelves/hard surfaces in the cage with the same cleaning solution and let air dry.
throw all soft furnishings in the laundry, once cage is comepltky air dry replace bedding with clean...
monthly remove EVERYTHIGN, take cage outside and hose it down
a good cleaning routein will keep the odor to a minimum, there will alsways be a mild musky odor (which smells a little like fritos) which is not realy unpleasent if you feed a meat based diet and keep on a strict cleaning scedual you shoudlnt have a problem with smell.
i woudl have anything from 3-8 ferrets at a time (3 perminent the others would come and go in a foster type situation) and NOONE ever knew...when people found out they always said the same thing "but i thought ferrets smelled bad!"
How often to feed and how much do they need to be fed?
I free fed dry food and then whenever i was in the mood theyd get a chicken wing or soemthing as a treat...
ferrets are pretty good self feeding machines and do best when given the option to "graze"
How often can they be bathed?
contrary to popular belif bathing does NOT help with smell, infact the musky odor is WORSE if you bathe a ferret too much (after a bath the oil production goes into over drive to produce the natural skin oils, during this time they are stronger smelling than usual...the more you bathe them the more oil the skin secretes and the oil contains that natural musk...
once a month should be enough unless they are getting dirty (muddy)
Nails needto be done once a week though, they grow FAST!
ferrets are awesome!