Ferrets are very playful and fun animals. In order to train our ferret well, we must understand their behavior. As youngsters they learn to interact with their peers through play, they often fight and bite each other. They do not hurt each other since their skin is hard and resistant and it is their way of interacting. When we want to play with them, they react in the same way, therefore, we must have patience and train them correctly.
It is also possible that they bite us out of fear, in many cases due to sudden movements that come from a level above their head and even more so if these are accompanied by a sharp sound. This reaction is a natural instinct in nature, since the ferret can receive attacks from birds of prey and other higher mammals.
If a young ferret bites us The best way to proceed in its training is to resist the urge to remove your hand while the ferret is biting, since if we want to remove it, it will bite harder, wanting to continue with the game. The same happens if we hit him in some part of the body, a good method for him to let us go is grab him by the nape of the neck and shake him like his mother would. If the balancing does not work we can pour water on them over the head.
A bad reaction can cause fear in our ferret and consequently it becomes more surly to be with us.
If we want to see our ferret happy, we must play with him, train him correctly, eat a complete diet according to his needs and do the necessary medical check-ups.
When we have a scared ferretThe worst thing we can do is force him to associate with us if he doesn't want to. In these cases, the first thing we must do is arm ourselves with patience and subject them to our presence for short periods of time at first that will gradually lengthen as we see what our ferret is capable of tolerating. In addition, it is convenient for the ferret to associate these moments with pleasant moments, for this, we can reward him with sweets (always for the ferret), malt, or something that we know he likes.
When our presence is not pleasant, the ferret will show it to us with some symptoms, such as: aggressiveness, running away, snorting, bristling hair (especially on the tail), curvature of the spine, etc. If your ferret has any of these symptoms, you should implement the mechanisms described above.
ferrets are animals clean by nature so they will never defecate near their resting place or their food. If what we want to achieve is that our ferret relieves itself in a specific place, we can put a little food in the rest of the corners and gradually remove it, when the ferret has already determined in which corner it can urinate and in which it won't because food can be found. If you have never relieved yourself in the chosen place and we don't know how to start, what we can do is take some of your feces and put them in the chosen corner, in this way you will understand that this is going to be your place to do it since even if it is cleaned, there are always remains that they perceive through smell. The ferrets urine contains ammonia so if you are washing the floor of your house with a product that contains ammonia, for the ferret this is a sign that means that it can urinate anywhere on your floor, so it is better to avoid these types of products, we will use White vinegar for cleaning that area, that will prevent it from repeating in the same place that I urinate.
El socialization period of ferrets begins from weaning, around 7 weeks of age, until three months of life. This stage is very important so that our pet begins to learn all kinds of sounds and animals that can live with him in the future, so we should not have the ferret isolated at this stage.
ferrets they have no sense of vertigo and see very poorly, so you have to be careful with the windows open when the heat starts, especially if we live on high floors.
Finally, you must never forget that ferrets in nature are predators, so you must never leave a ferret alone, without supervision, with a baby or with an elderly person who cannot defend himself.
Written by: Sonia Peláez Díaz.
Specialist in Animal Ethology
COL No.: 6115
