Ferret Care - Toys and Playing

Robin Hochgertel: Hi! I am Robin from FerretsFirst teaching you how to take care of your ferrets. Now we're going to talk about ferret toys.

Ferrets enjoy a variety of toys but some necessities for them are a tubing that they can run through. It's kind of like running through their burrow. They have a lot of fun and occasionally, you will get 3/4/5 ferrets in a tubing, all playing together.

A dig box reminds them also of their burrow. In that dig box, you can put cornstarch peanuts not Styrofoam, unprocessed rice or shredded white paper. They like simple toys too, such as plastic bags, your everyday household bag. Just make sure that you break the handles and they'll play with the plastic bags as if it's something new and exciting. Its a very cheap toy.

Other than these types of toys that I have mentioned, small toys made of cloth with squeakers inside are good, hard rattle balls are also toys that they like. They are pretty fond of cat teasers. They will get a little crazy for you with the cat teaser. Things that you need to avoid, as far as toys goes, are things that are small enough that they could swallow and would cause an obstruction. Don't give them any kind of latex toy because they can chew that latex and swallow pieces of and again get obstructed.

Hard toys with squeakers on the outside, they will chew and chew until they get that squeaker out. The last thing you would want to see is them swallow that squeaker because you will have to go to the Veterinarian and get that removed.

When ferrets get nuts and go crazy and dance all over, we call that the Weasel War Dance. You can see that they seem to enjoy all the toys that they have. She likes her little ball and here comes one out of the tube. That's the joy of ferrets, watching them play because there's nothing more entertaining than seeing a ferret do the War Dance, which is going one over here now.

But even in the play pen, we still have food and water always available to them. Ferrets have earned quite a few fun names. We call them fuzzbutts, fur kids, ankle biters, carpet sharks, because they will all come out to your toes when you are wearing socks. They are great socktees. You do have to be careful because they will take stuff and hide it. You'll find that they have little stashes hidden around. All of their names, they have earned. These are the fun things you do with your ferrets. This is the entertaining part, taking them up, cuddling on them, holding them. They become very bonded to their people and they become very bonded to each other.

So if you get a ferret, plan on having it for the rest of your life. Next, we'll talk about the great outdoors and possible hazards.