Home ferret: the size, color, care, conditions in the apartment, names, pros and cons, reviews

Funny, active, sociable, funny, nimble - these words can describe domestic ferrets. But for the maintenance of these animals in the house, in addition to love and patience from the master, certain knowledge will be required.

The modern world is so multifaceted and diverse that even a crocodile in the bathroom of an ordinary apartment will not surprise anyone. Therefore, a child running along the street with a ferret on a leash causes only joy and tenderness. And it is understandable why, - as an exotic pet, ferrets are known since the 15th century.

Home ferrets are cute and funny animals

The proof of this is the picture by Leonardo da Vinci "The Lady with Ermine", dated 1489-1490, on which, in the opinion of many specialists, the furo-ferret-albino is depicted. However, the chronicle mentions of the choir go back to the 4th century BC.

Anyway, now decorative ferrets - frets and their variety of furo - are one of the most beloved pets.

How does a ferret look like its size, color: white ferret Photo

Decorative ferrets are very cute and funny little animals, with a maximum weight of 3 kg in males and body length in males - up to 50 cm, in females - up to 40 cm. Lengththe tail of these animals can reach 18 cm.

IMPORTANT: The color scheme of a beautiful fluffy fur is very diverse and depends on the color of breeding individuals: from black to albino or furo.

In their appearance, ferrets are similar to a dachshund: a long body and short legs, but they have a specific skeleton structure that helps them to climb into incredibly narrow cracks.

IMPORTANT: It is necessary to be very careful not to injure the pet, who climbed, for example, into the fastening of the sofa.

White Home Ferrets

How many ferrets live?

This question is asked, probably, everyone, acquiring a similar pet.

IMPORTANT: In nature, ferrets live no more than 4 years, which is related to their way of life - these little predators often themselves become a dinner of stronger beasts.

Domestic ferrets receiving proper care will delight their hosts on average from 8 to 10 years. There are known cases of long life of frets - up to 15 years in the absence of a genetic predisposition to various diseases.

Home ferret lives about 8 - 10 years

Do you have a ferret?

To solve the dilemma of Hamlet "To be or not to be?" Can help only one thing: understand if you are ready to be responsible for the person you tamed, give him a decent care and good attitude. If the answer is "yes," the ferret will always appear in your house.

Home ferret pluses and minuses

After the whole family decided to join the new member - a furry fretka, you need to know all the positive and negative factors of acquiring such a miracle:

"Against":

• animal recognizes only one host, to the rest, even family members, can be aggressive( bite) .To avoid this, you need to train the animal, show who in the house is the main
• digs out living living plants and rusts carpets, furniture, wallpapers
• expensive specific treatment in case of illness
• ferret necessarily before going to sleep needs to be exhausted with games , otherwise the owner is provided with a very-very noisy early rise

Home ferret needs to be "exhausted" with games before sleep

"For":

• decorative ferret - the most is a fun, playful and positive animal
• not a gourmet , you can feedнекоторыми some kinds of cat food
• are very friendly in relation to other pets - cats and dogs
• while the owner is absent, the animal feels cozy in a cage and does not lose weight
• very households , so if something is missing, you need to lookin the "treasury" of
• , there is no smell , if you carry out daily cleaning of the pet cat

Ferrets are friendly and get along well with other pets

Take this into account when deciding and make the right choice.

How to distinguish a boy's ferret from a girl?

Usually, the ferret's floor is defined simply enough: you need to put the pet on the tummy and carefully examine it: if there is a hole near the tail, this is the female, if there is a little bump in a small distance from the tail - this means the male.

IMPORTANT: Also the floor can be determined by the size of the pet: the female is almost half the size, and by behavior: boys are less nimble and active unlike girls.

How to name a ferret a girl and a boy?

When choosing a name for a pet, the owners of the animal experience the same difficulties that arise from parents when a baby is born.

Decide what is the defining criterion: the sign of the zodiac, idol, habits, behavior, color of the coat or something else.

IMPORTANT: The main thing, since ferrets are amenable to training, must be short, sonorous and concise: Ice, Baloo, Gray, Wolf, Vinya, Diesel, Duck, Lucky, Kasya, Mila, Pronya, Simba, Senya, Tisha and t.

If the flight of fantasy can not stop at anything, you can use the dictionary for animal names Svetlana Gurieva, which offers 20,000 options.

Ferret name should be short and sonorous

How to determine the age of a ferret?

If the ferret's date of birth is not known, its age can be approximately determined as follows:

In the teeth:

• in the animal, the molar teeth begin to erupt to 1.5 months
• up to the year the upper canines bright white
• to 2 years their tips turn yellow and become slightlytransparent
• by the 4th year the transparency increases and advances up the canine and other teeth
• by the age of 6 the fangs turn yellow to the gums and some teeth are even missing

The age of the domestic ferret can be identified by the teeth

By wooland:

• in a puppy by a month and a half the body is covered with gray fur
• to three months on a soft to the touch fur begins to form their native color
• in an adult ferret wool is much tougher and coarser

By behavior:

• all youngsters are characterized by hyperactivity and curiosity bordering on ill-, the playfulness of
• , the adult pet plays much less, sleeps more and thinks about

How to take care of a homemade ferret in an apartment?

First you need to determine the location of the pet: it must be a cage or a specially fenced off and equipped corner.

IMPORTANT: Since these practically harmless predators need to be allowed to move around the house or apartment, it is necessary to repair all, even minor, cracks and holes, close cabinets, wardrobes, doors to a bathroom and a bathroom, windows.

During outdoor exercise, the animal must be put on a harness.

In order for the ferret to sleep well, needs to make a house for it or allocate a special place for it.

A home ferret needs to be allocated a place to sleep

The feeder should be small and sturdy.

"Toilet bowl" must be cleaned at least once a day , otherwise the ferret will run to cleaner places of the owner's home, which is unlikely to please you.

Video: Care of the ferret

Cells and furniture for the ferret

Despite the fact that in the cage the ferret usually spends less time, it should be quite spacious: 65h85h55 cm - the minimum size of the pet's dwelling.

IMPORTANT: If possible, it is better to purchase a multi-storey aviary for a ferret with a distance between the rods no more than three centimeters.

The cage should be:

• lodge, where the ferret can safely rest
• hanging drinker and the
• feeder small hinged hammock
• litter and all kinds of scraps

Home ferrets like to rest in hinged hammocks

The tray must contain any well-absorbent filler. Usually, pressed filings are used.

IMPORTANT: If the pet has a longer time outside the cage, it is necessary to put several trays in different places in the apartment.

Important point - the cage should be easy to clean.

What to feed the ferret, what do they eat, feed?

When preparing a ration for fritters, the owners must remember that even a domesticated ferret is inherently a predator and must receive adequate nutrition.

Vegetable food can be no more than a quarter of the total food received by the ferret.

IMPORTANT: It is better to purchase at the pet store a specially balanced feed for healthy growth and development, including proteins in the amount of 35-40%, fats - 30% and fiber in the amount of 3%.

Veterinarians allow ferrets to be fed with cat food , but only superpremium class or special for pregnant cats and kittens.

A domestic ferret can feed on premium cat food

If the owner wants to feed the ferret with natural products, then this basically( up to 70%) should be poultry( kidneys, hearts, giblets), fish( 15%) - cod, trout orflounder, porridge( up to 15%) - buckwheat, millet, rice.

How many times a day does the ferret feed, how much does it eat per day?

One-time dosage should not particularly disturb the pet's owner, since the ferret does not eat like a "blind horse", but consumes only as much food as necessary for active living.

IMPORTANT: Feed the ferret in small portions up to seven times a day, otherwise it is threatened with death from exhaustion due to a well-developed metabolic process.

How many hours do ferrets sleep per day?

Since ferrets are very active, they sleep well enough to restore strength for new games and fun. The ratio of wakefulness and rest is approximately 1: 2.In the winter, sleep is more robust and lasting.

IMPORTANT: The ferret can fall asleep instantly and in the most unexpected place, so the owner must keep an eye on the pet and always know where it is.

Homemade ferrets rest twice as long as awake

How to wean the ferret to bite?

A ferret is a small smart predator who is given teeth to hunt and defend. Therefore, biting and biting for him is the norm, an unconditioned reflex.

IMPORTANT: The ferret is very easy to train, and if the dog can be taught to bite, then the ferret, accordingly, can be disaccustomed to do it.

With the basics of pet education, you can achieve good results. Unintentional aggression in the ferret occurs very often during the game.

If the animal bites, you must severely and loudly say "No!" or "Do not!" and push it away, letting it know that you are unhappy with its actions.

If bites repeat, it's best to stop playing and temporarily isolate in the cage. For many, this approach is understandable and the result does not make you wait.

The domestic ferret needs to be weaned from biting since childhood

But there are animals from the category "tear and throw away", with which you need to be more rigid: during the attack, press the chicken to the floor and hiss on it or shake it, taking it by the withers.

To release it is necessary only after complete calming of the animal in order to get the right reaction. After a series of such procedures, the pet begins to understand that biting does not entertain the master and move on to other variants of mischief.

How to wean the ferret and how to accustom it to the tray?

It is necessary to accustom a new member of the family to the tray from the first day of appearance in the house. However, you can not use voice and punishment, because the kid is frightened and does not use the tray at all.

IMPORTANT: The owner must have patience, because even an accustomed ferret will from time to time foul where he likes - nature periodically damps the fruits of education.

Very effective method of training, when the baby wakes up .In order not to miss the moment of awakening, it's better to wake him up by himself and, stroking, to hold some time on his hands. After manifesting obvious signs of anxiety, the animal must be lowered into the tray and try to hold it until it cope with its need.

Tray for the domestic ferret

If the baby did everything as it should, you should praise it and stimulate it with permitted delicacy. Repeat the operation preferably every half hour to fix the result.

IMPORTANT: If the tray is not the only place to handle natural needs, you need to thoroughly disinfect the place of "sin", severely detach the pet without raising your voice, and put it in the cage for a while. Next, you need to carefully monitor the ferret, and as soon as it becomes a characteristic pose for emptying, take it to the tray.

Do not forget to clean the tray every day, as this is one of the basic rules for keeping ferrets.

How to get rid of the ferret's smell: means.

The specific smell of ferrets is a kind of defensive reaction of the body to the stimulus. If the animal is frightened, dissatisfied with something, or it is just filled with paranal glands - an unpleasant, difficult-to-extract odor can not be avoided.

These endocrine glands usually clean animals by themselves, however in case of a pathology they can be surgically removed.

Along with the removal of paranal glands, ferrets are often performed by domestic ferrets

Parallel to this, castration of the ferret is usually carried out. The wound after this operation is healed in a couple of days, and the animal continues to live a normal life.

Sterilization and castration of the ferret

If you purchased an animal not for breeding, it is better to shield it from the desire to meet natural sexual needs, which will make the ferret more calm, complaisant and will save future diseases from many.

This can be done in two ways: by sterilization and castration:

• The process of sterilization of is to bandage the spermatic cord in boys and remove the uterus from the girls. At the same time, there is no influence on the endocrine system of the body, and the animal lives on a full life without thinking about the descendants of
• . Castration of occurs with the removal of the genital organs of the animal: testes in males and ovaries with a uterus in females. However, this procedure disrupts the hormonal balance, which may subsequently affect the health of the ferret

. After sterilization and castration, the ferrets become calm

Ferrets of the ferrets

At the first signs of malaise, you should immediately contact a specialist. However, there are a number of diseases that are very difficult to diagnose at an early stage:

• A dangerous infectious disease - rabies , during which the nervous system of the animal's body is damaged. The virus is transmitted when bitten with saliva from a sick animal, the incubation period varies from 14 to 90 days. At the first signs of light and hydrophobia, the animal needs to be shown to the veterinarian, but it is important to know that there is no anti-rabies medication.
• The plague is the most dangerous disease, in which if the signs are not noticed at the outset, the animal usually dies. The main distributor is an ill animal, but the owner on his clothes or shoes can bring the virus into the house. Photophobia, purulent discharge from the eyes and nose, apathy, loss of appetite and fever - the main symptoms of the disease
• Aleutian disease affects the immune system of ferrets and is diagnosed posthumously. Typical symptomatology: lack of appetite, apathy, vomiting and diarrhea, increased thirst, dull, neglected hair. The incubation period is up to three months, the virus is contained in the secretions and feces of the infected animal, it can not be treated.
• The flu is diagnosed fairly quickly, and the lethal outcome occurs only in the case of the owner's negligent attitude towards his pet. Symptomatic is pronounced: apathetic sleepless state of the animal, sneezing and coughing appear, diarrhea is possible.
• . Ferrets also ache with hepatitis, salmonellosis, leptospirosis

. IMPORTANT: In addition to infectious diseases, the ferret can have pathology in the work of various organs and systems. The main thing - in time to notice the discord in the health of the pet and turn to a specialist for qualified help.

Why does the ferret grow bald and tail?

The causes of alopecia are very different

• first - advanced age , in which both dogs and cats and ferrets are balding, and even people
• second - wrong nutrition , which lacks the necessary vitamins and minerals
• third - clogged sebaceousgland
• the fourth - problems with adrenals

Therefore, in any case, you need to contact a veterinarian who diagnoses the cause and, if necessary, will prescribe the appropriate treatment.

Vaccination of ferrets: inoculations

For vaccination of ferrets from plague and rabies, canine vaccines of foreign origin are used: NOBIVAC, TRIVIROVAC and others.

Dog vaccine

is used to vaccinate domestic ferrets. Only healthy animals can be vaccinated, and vaccination is contraindicated for patients, pregnant, nursing and self-feeding during estrus.

IMPORTANT: Ten days before the procedure, you should save the animal from parasites.

From plague ferret is grafted at a month's age, from rabies to - at 3-3.5 months.

Active immunity is produced two weeks after the procedure, so after vaccination it is desirable to exclude during the walk.

Remember - the health and life of your pet depends on your attitude.

Ferret reviews

Victor: For a long time I could not teach the house ferret to the tray in the cage. What I just did not do was convince and punish. And he persistently chose the opposite corner from the tray. When I was completely desperate, I turned to the veterinarian for help. It turned out that I made a mistake in arranging the cage for the ferret. I put the tray next to the trough, and the ferrets never shit next to the place where they eat. When the tray was moved, the problems disappeared.

Ferret quickly get along with other pets

Olga: My ferret is very playful, likes different holes and cracks. Once he got stuck in the couch. I had to take it apart to get my fool out.

Dima: My parents gave me Gina's ferret for my birthday. I'm having a lot of fun with him. I just do not like that Jean wakes up very early and immediately starts running around and gnawing everything.

Video: Homemade ferrets will not be bored for sure!