Life with Ferrets...

When I first brought Bella home, I didn't know what I was in for.  As I drove home, she struggled to find a way out of her new cage.

When we got home, I let her run around in the bathroom so I could keep track of her, and so she wouldn't feel so trapped in her cage.  What a night.  I tried to pick her up, and she hopped straight up and down on all fours, making strange little sounds, all the while backing up and waving her head back and forth like she was psychotic.

I hadn't picked a name for her yet, but I was beginning to get some ideas... "Linda Blair"... "Demon Ferret."

Later, when I went to pick her up, she constantly tried to bite me.  After the first night, I called the pet store.  I wanted to take her back, I thought she hated me.  They told me to give it a little time.  By the end of the week, I had scratches all the way up my arms, and bites all over my hands.

If you're looking for a pet, there are 4 things that you need to know about ferrets:

That little hop straight up in the air that ferrets do is playing!
...Even the shaking-their-head-like-they're-possessed part. 

And that noise they make isn't from some malevolent spirit trying to take over their bodies...
It's Ferret Laughter!

Bella "The Demon Ferret"

A Ferret's bowl must never be empty. I've grown up with every kind of pet, and like puppies and kittens, I thought if I fed her 2 or 3 times a day, she would be fine.  Well, she was fine, until she was hungry.  Then she let me know in the only way she knew how... by biting my hand.  Ferrets don't whine, bark or meow, so that's how she told me, only I didn't figure it out until I was all chewed up.

Ferrets need to play. Ferrets are as playful as a dog and a kitten put together, and they stay as playful as babies until their old age... but for that they need room to play, and time, caring and attention.  You can't expect to bring a ferret home and leave him or her in a cage like a hamster.  People always ask if Ferrets bite.  Every animal can bite, but whether they do bite depends on how well they've been treated, and how much time you spend with them.

Every corner is a place to poop, unless otherwise occupied. It's true!  In fact, if you plan on buying a baby ferret from a pet store where the litter box isn't in a corner, or worse, there is no litter box, don't bother.  Ferrets like to go in corners, as far away from their bed as possible.
Having just said that Ferrets need space, nothing works better in potty training than a cage.  A young ferret in a cage  is given 2 choices: either poop where he sleeps and eats, or poop where the litter box is.

Sounds like a lot of preaching, I know, but these are things I would have liked to have known in the first week that Bella came home.  It's my opinion that these are also the things that clerks at pet stores don't tell you, because they've never had ferrets.

Up until now, it seems I've painted a pretty gory story of life with ferrets, but like I said before, I wouldn't trade it for anything.  The little demon ferret that I brought home has grown into such a little princess, that she's the closest thing to a grand-daughter my Mom will get to spoil.  But she still lets me know when she's hungry, it just doesn't hurt so much.