Ferret Care - Outdoor Safety

Robin Hochgertel: Hi! I am Robin from FerretsFirst teaching you how to take care of your ferrets. Now about the great outdoors.

Ferrets love to go outdoors. They'll take any opportunity they can get to go outside. The best way to take them out is to put them on a harness with a leash and they'll take you for a walk. They are going to want to explore little nooks and crannies, and dig some holes, and tumble through some leaves, smell everything in sight. It's really a thrill for them to get out.

Another way to take them out is to setup an outdoor play pen. They sell some play pens commercially that are made of wire. You can put them outside for a little while just to play in the grass and smell things. If it's hot outside, ferrets do not tolerate the heat very well. So limit their time outside.

Also, with the extreme cold their time outside should be limited, though they do like to ramping the snow. As I mentioned, ferrets do like to get outside and will take any opportunity. That's part of ferret proofing, is to make sure there is no way for your ferret to get outside or that you don't accidentally let it outside. Once a ferret's out, it does not know it's way home and it can not take care of itself.

So the minute you notice that your ferret is gone, you need to do a couple of things. You need to call all local shelters and make them aware that your ferret is missing and what your ferret looks like and how to contact you. You should call all exotic Veterinarians. You should make up a poster of your ferret and hang it in the neighborhood, but most important, you need to take this poster of your ferret and go door-to-door to each of your neighbor's homes and show them the ferret and tell them that it's missing. Most people don't know what a ferret looks like. Last time my ferret got out, some lady thought it was rat. Luckily my ferret did come home and that was the only incident I have had, but it's important to go around and educate your neighbors about what a ferret is and what they do because they can help you find it. Just walking around neighborhoods will leave your scent there and sometimes your ferret will follow your scent back home. That's what happened with my ferret, I walked all over and he ended up following my scent back home.

Next, we're going to talk about behavioral misconceptions and medical problems.