Ferret?

[trefingers]

Hello, new to petlovers. I'm currently in college and my roommate and I would like to get a ferret; we live in a house with 6 other people and they're fine with the ferret as long as it won't make the rest of the house stink. My roommate and I really don't mind the smell; however will the rest of the house get an odor if the cage is kept in our room and we keep the ferret and its cage cleaned? Thanks for any help.

[Amanda]

Welcome here! I have a ferret and we clean his litter box daily, plus a total cage cleaning (washing all this hammocks and sleeping areas) every weekend. We don't bathe him very often because we don't want to dry out his skin but he gets to swim in our bathtub atleast 2 times a month. Ferrets are awesome and so much fun to have around, and as long as you keep his litter and cage clean all the time you'll notice that the odor isn't so bad. Good luck with getting a ferret ... and let us know when you bring one home (maybe posting a baby ferret picture?). :)

[trefingers]

Thanks very much. Interestingly enough, we don't have any baths in our house, only showers. Do you think a ferret would enjoy a shower? I certainly wouldn't mind showering with one (with a bathing suit on of course). But if ferrets really do enjoy a bath, I might think twice about getting one, I definitely want it to be as happy as possible. Oh and another question, does anyone know anything about their hair? One of my housemates is allergic to cats and thinks that he might be allergic to the ferret hair as well.

[mzdolittle]

Hello and welcome. I had 5 ferrets several years ago and I currently have two others. I have heard of people like Amanda who have ferrets who like to swim or take baths, but I have never had one who liked it at all. At best, some of them tolerated a bath, but that was it. Some people find the smell objectionable, but it only seems like a musky smell to most people. There are sprays and dry shampoos you can use in between actual baths. I sprinkle a little bit of the dry shampoo on my ferrets' hammocks once in a while. There is a product called Biodor that you put in the drinking water that makes the poo not smell quite so bad. I have a lot of animals and I use it in the ferret and rabbit water bottles. Any smell that is there, will stay confined to the ferret and his cage as long as you keep the cage cleaned out as Amanda said.
As for the hair, my boyfriend is highly allergic to cats and most other animals. I took the ferrets to his house to see if they bothered him and they did...very much so. It turns out my only animals he's not bothered by are my Sugar Gliders and hairless rat.