October 25, 2006

Ferret pet care: Part I

How to take care of a ferret?

Not long time age seeing ferrets in animal shelters was strange, but nowadays many pet shelters have one or two cages separated for them, but unfortunately most employees ignore the necessities of these domesticated weasels. If ferrets regularly arrive to your shelter look for an experienced veterinarian that make them the necessary initial exams and give them the special care they need.
Basic guidelines on ferret care:


-Choose pet accessories: The ancestors of ferrets were burrow animals, so any temporary shelter pet may seem like a burrow. Use a wire cage of 18 inches tall, 30 inches long and 18 inches of depth- many ferrets love two-stage cages with ladders or ramps to climb, shelves and hammocks to lean on. So a cat cage is a good alternative.


Avoid the aquariums since these give no much ventilation. Since ferrets are expert runaways, the cage must have a lock and doors of 1 to 2 inches. The wire surface is uncomfortable fort he ferrets hooves, so place a rubber covers or a washable piece of rug. If you use other materials like Word, this would be very hard to disinfect; newspaper will satin in black the hooves of the ferret and cedar tree chips accumulate bed smell and even cause breathing problems. Place the cage out from direct sunlight, in a fresh area instead in shade, at a temperature fluctuating between 55 to 70 degrees. Wash the area with soft detergent and warn water, and then disinfect the cage.


- Teach the ferret to potty: you can minimize the cage cleaning if you teach the ferret how to use a waste box. Get a small cardboard box or a plastic container of 3 to 5 inch tall to sue it as waste box. Make sure to place it in a part of the cage away from the resting and feeding areas.

The accumulation of waste may irritate the ferret’s eyes and cause it breathing problems. So put inside the waste box one or more inches of paper or fibers of leaves. Unlike cats, ferrets are not very clean, since they do not regularly cover their waste; so that will regularly leave the cleaning to you.

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