Let's do a summary on the basic facts of ferrets.

MUSTELA PUTORIOS FURO

Although it sounds strange, this is the scientific name of the ferret. This name comes from various Latin origins, and has been drifting until staying with these three words. The ferret is in the mustelid family, which is a subspecies of the polecat.

The ferret is a mammalian animal. Its weight in adulthood can vary from 500 to 2000 gr. and its length can range between 25 and 60 cm. It must be taken into account that the males get to become much larger than the females.

If our question is how many years a ferret can live, we must take into account that their life expectancy is between 8 and 10 years.

The ferret is still that little unknown, albeit an excellent companion animal. A close description of the ferret character would be a cross between a dog and a cat. Surely it will chase us all over the house, so it will seem that we have a puppy, but as soon as we start playing with it, we will discover a naughty and playful kitten.

It must be taken into account that a ferret sleeps an average of 18-20 hours a day, which means that it does not need much of our time and attention, although we must know that the hours it is awake are full of energy, so it will be normal to see him run and jump, and wishing we would take him out of the cage so he can investigate and run around the room.

What should we consider.

There are many possibilities that during the first days of our ferret's arrival at home, he may bite us, although without really hurting us. If this happens, we should not be scared and think that we have an aggressive animal, but rather that it is surely scared by the change and its only defense is based on biting. We must not give up, and with patience and a little time, we will manage to make it a very docile and playful animal.

Once we have our ferret accustomed to our hands, to its new home and to the smells, it is very possible that it will never bite again, either to ourselves or to any person who comes to our house. It is also good that we know that the basic game among ferrets is nibbling, although they will never hurt us or clench their jaws, they will be lazy and without any bad intentions.

CAN I RIDE IT?

There is no problem in taking our ferret for a walk, we just have to take a couple of things into account. The first and most important are vaccinations. If we want to take our ferret down the street or into the fields, we must vaccinate it against distemper and rabies, following the vaccination plan recommended by our veterinarian. If, on the other hand, we are only going to let him run around the house, it will only be necessary to vaccinate him during the first year.

If we let our ferret loose at home, it should be under surveillance, since in our daily lives there are many risks for our little one. We must avoid that it can hide behind electrical appliances, that it can get into a drain or hole, that it can jump out of the window or balcony if they are open, fall into a bucket of water, bite electrical cables...