Today is the day I am finally getting around to blogging about my ferrets. I figured I would give you all a little biography of each one. I wanted to start with Scooter, because even though she is no longer with me, she was my first ferret and taught me a lot about being a ferret mom, including my introduction into the sad world of adrenal disease in ferrets. Scooter passed away in December of 2008 from a sudden crash due to adrenal disease. I still miss her very much today.
Scooter was a perfect first ferret. She was very sweet, and loved me very much. She was a very cuddly ferret, and by that I mean far more than any ferret I have ever had or seen since. She would seek me out after play time every day, climb into my lap and go to sleep. She wanted to sleep there. Even if I moved around, she would barely wake to acknowledge that and sometimes didn’t even do that. She loved to be snuggled. I bought her in a pet store after my husband had convinced me that ferrets really were good pets. I was very much in love with her and loved how sweet she was. It broke my heart when she died. There will never be another Scooter.
After having Scooter for about a year, I decided to get another ferret, to keep Scooter company. So we brought home Addie. She is a Marshall ferret, as was Scooter. Marshalls is the primary ferret breeder in the United States. Almost all ferrets bought in commercial pet stores are Marshall ferrets. While I am not fond of the “mass production” of any species, and I am aware that Marshalls also supplies the research industry, without which there would be no decisive treatment for the insulinoma and adrenal cancer that ferrets are prone to. Every part of me wants to insert the name Marshalls before the word ferret in that sentence, but I have been corrected recently by being shown the statistics. Though there are a lot of Marshall ferrets with insulinoma and adrenal cancers, the fact is that there are a lot of Marshall ferrets. Among the non-Marshall ferrets recorded, there is a corresponding number of instances for insulinoma and adrenal disease. So therefore, it seems that ferrets are prone to these disorders, which it appears to have a lot to do with commercial diets that contain far too many fillers and no where near enough meat. Any way, Addie. Addie is a wiry, feisty little spit of a thing. She loves to play and roughhouse. Not so much on the cuddly thing, but she will give you lots of kisses. She’s getting up in years now, approaching 7. She has just recently shown some small signs of insulinoma. A bit of weakness in her rear legs when she first gets up, and an off day here and there, but nothing serious enough yet for meds. I have her on a partial raw diet, and thankfully when she is having an off day, meat is her choice of things to eat. Scooter began to show signs of adrenal disease at 6, so I am grateful to have Addie be so healthy at almost 7. After we had her for about a year, Chelsea and I stopped at a Petco one day and came across a dark male sabel kit. Chelsea fell in love with him and home he came with us, so meet Tucker.
Tucker is our first male ferret. If we though Addie was roudy, we had seen nothing yet! Tucker was a biter. He was a toe biting, leg jumper crazy maniac out of the gate, and he chose Chelsea as his “slave” (even though I am the one that feeds, cleans, and grooms him….ungrateful little twerp 
). Problem was he bit too hard, and we had our first opportunity to learn how to train a ferret out of bad behaviours. He was very smart and caught on very quickly that if he bit, he ended up in his cage. We used the word “gentle” when playing with him, during the time that he was playing nicely. As soon as he bit too hard, into his cage he went. He wanted to be out playing and hated being put in his cage, so it didn’t take him long to begin to associate the word “gentle” with the type of playing we wanted as humans. Now he never bites. He loves Ramen Noodle soup, and will stalk you down for it. He hates dog squeeky toys and will rip them to shreds if he gets a hold of one.
Shortly after Tucker came to live with us, Scooter was becoming very ill. When she passed, I was so heartbroken I didn’t know what to do. I got to looking around the internet for rescues in my area to help out at, and found one in the city nearest to us. We went for a ride to check them out, and we came home with Zipper.
Zipper is a big, fat, marshmallow of a ferret. He was about 8 months old when we adopted him from the rescue. He had been surrendered by someone who couldn’t afford to feed him and was feeding him bread. He is the sweetest guy. He is not a Marshall’s ferret, and was my first sense of what the difference is between Marshall and non-Marshall ferrets. We don’t really know where Zipper came from, but it’s likely it was from one of the Canadian breeders that breed for the pet trade, as he is neutered and de-scented. He is much bigger than my other ferrets, has a thicker coat, and a huge personality. He gets into stuff constantly, and if you hear a crash in our house, you can be almost positive that Zipper caused it. He is a complete clutz, and actually managed to break his toe once. Poor guy. He whimpered and cried. The trick with him is to always be at least one step ahead of him to keep him out of trouble. I wouldn’t trade him for the world. He lights up my days!
Then, last Easter, we found a litter of kits in a local pet store that were far to young to be there. Pet stores trying to sell on the cute factor at Easter time to some unsuspecting family who were about to get way more than they could handle. We brought home the one that we knew had Waardenberg’s syndrome, a genetic disorder that affects a lot of ferrets. It was originally actually bred into them, as Waardenberg ferrets have cute markings, but they can also be deaf. And this baby definitely was. Meet Doodle Bug.
He is just the funniest little guy! When we got him home, he was a mess. Scared to death, attacked anything that moved and bit hard, couldn’t eat kibble yet, and completely deaf. It took a couple of weeks for him to settle in, and it didn’t help that my other males decided they needed to show him THEY were boss by dragging him around the house by the scruff of the neck. But he finally got it that there was plenty of food, nothing to be scared of, and he just stopped attacking. He is 1 year old now, and a joy. Still a bit different to live with a deaf ferret…things like free time in the house have to be adjusted for him, as if he goes to sleep in a strange place, I’d never find him. We have had to wait him out a few times, but now he is almost always where ever Zipper is, so we can find him. He is very sweet, curious, and loves bananas and yogurt.
Well, there you have it. An intro to my fuzzbutts. From time to time I may post a crazy adventure that one of them has had. Most days are a crazy adventure when you have ferrets. They are just joyous, happy creatures that live completely in the moment. They love humans and seek us out to play. They can put a smile on anyone’s face if they take the time to watch them. Better yet, get down on the floor and play with them, in their world. I’ll guarantee that you leave with a smile on your face!
Cool video!!!