Hello Amanda

[luvfurpets]

Hello Amanda, This is luv. You answered a post of mine on Introduce yourself. I posted about my hampster. In your post you said you had a ferret. Please tell me about him/her. I love ferrets. I think they are the most interesting little guys.
Luv :)

[Amanda]

Hello luv,

Our ferret's name is George and I refer to him as our "rescued" ferret. We found him outside (under a bush) in the backyard 4 years ago. The kids were out playing and he kept poking his head out from under the bushes, but as soon as the kids approached he would hide again. Eventually, the kids called me and told me about "an animal in the bush". I went outside and lured him out from under the bushes and he has been part of our family since then. We posted signs around our neighborhood and also checked the local newspaper but no one claimed him. Anyway, since we just found him outside we're not sure of his exact age. The vet told us that he was probably about 1 - 1 1/2 yrs old when we found him.

Ferrets are such great pets. I never thought that they would love to cuddle and interact, but our little George acts just like a dog. He gets time out of his cage daily, and as soon as we open his cage door he'll come out on his own but will stand by our feet (looking up at us) until we pet him. As soon as he gets his dose of petting, he runs in seach of a playmate. (I have dogs and cats that love to play with George.) When George is out of his cage, he knows where the cat litter is and uses it to do his "business". He loves to play with the kids as well and hops around the livingroom floor making cute "cooing" noises when he's playing with the kids. He is not nippy at all and when we pick him up, he lays very still in our arms (just like a baby). I have read that ferrets can get very nippy ... but I don't find that is true with George. As a matter of fact, he is so well-behaved that I took him to my kids school for "show and tell" one year and all the kids got a chance to hold him. The kids loved it ... and so did George.

Anyway, if you have any other questions about ferrets, feel free to ask me. There is a picture of George in the "Picture Forum".

Talk to you later,
Amanda

[Jenny]

Aw, George sounds like such a sweetheart and I'm glad you found him! I've heard about the nippy thing too but out of the millions of ferrets that come into the clinic, not a single one has been nippy, though of course some are sweeter than others. Amanda, has he had any adrenal problems yet, or anything else? My vet said that when they get 5 yrs. + they seem to pick from a list of major illnesses, wiht adrenal tumors being at the top. Just curious~

[luvfurpets]

Hi Amanda, George really does sound like a little sweety. I have read stories of people just turning their ferrets loose, thinking they are like a wild ferret and can make it on their own. Which is very sad. I've only had one ferret and that was a long time ago. My oldest son had gotten him from a neighbor and named him Shredder. He was never nippy with any of us, but did bite a neighbor once. He had picked him up roughly and was being rough with him. I told him to put him down, that he wasn't used to that kind of handling. Then Shredder just chomped him. He put him down in a hurry then. LOL. It didn't even break the skin. Shredder used a litter pan too, in and out of his cage. Of course he had a huge cage that my husband had built for him with a little house at one end. He'd curl up in there and sleep at night. His coloring was exactly like a wild ferret. My vet thought he was a wild ferret at first. Thanks for sharing info about Geroge. I'm gonna go look at his pic now. Bye, Luv

[Amanda]

Hi Jenny,

Thanks for bringing that up .... about the adrenal tumors in ferrets. I sort of remember reading something about that way back when we first got George and we were reading all about ferrets. I haven't opened our ferret books in such a long time ... :eek: Our vet hasn't said anything about it to me, and until you mentioned it, I had completely forgotten all about it. I'm going to ask our vet about it next time I take George for his yearly check-up. I'm assuming that there'll be blood tests done, which our vet didn't do last time George was there (springtime).

Thanks for the heads-up Jenny. I'm going to search for our ferret books now and read about it again, as I have forgotten what I read 4 years ago. :(

[Amanda]

Hi luv, it was my pleasure telling you all about George. :D I would love to hear about Shredders -- as there are not many people here that have a ferret so it would be nice to hear other ferret stories. Or, you could also tell me about your current pets. I love reading about everyone's pet stories :) .