Buying and Caring for Your Pet Ferret

Years ago, my first husband, Jack, and I kept ferrets. We had two - "Rikki" (for Rikki Tikki Tavi, of course), and Rosie, a female. We had Rikki for a couple of years before we got Rosie. He was a tremendous lot of fun. We had a little harness for him and a leash, and would take him out for walks. Most people we met knew almost nothing about ferrets and had strong reactions to him (possibly because of his strong smell); if they didn't say, "What's that?" they'd say, "Hey, where'd you get your rat?"

At that time we lived in a house with highly polished wood floors, and Jack was fond of playing "bowl the ferret" along our front hall. He'd spin Rikki around and around on his finger (on the floor) then give him a push and Rikki would go spinning like a loosed balloon all the way down the hall. He loved it. He'd jump up and come scampering back and curl up on the floor for another go.

Ferrets can be a lot of fun, but they shouldn't be undertaken as pets without a lot of thought and preparation. They are an ice-breaker par excellence; but they may bite, and will have to be trained out of it. (To get the ferret to let go - no easy task - grab the base of his jaw from behind, where the joint is, between two fingers and squeeze. He will be furious at you for a while, but they must not be allowed to bite, and if small children (under 180 lbs.) will be visiting, it's best to put a little muzzle on him).

In English pubs, I am told, you can win money by volunteering to put a ferret down your pants.

It's not really clear where ferrets came from, although they used to live wild near the towns of prairie dogs - their favorite food (the dogs, not the towns). They belong to the family Mustelidae (Mus-TELLA-dee). Some have speculated that the ancestors of our modern ferrets were kept on farms 2,000 years ago, to discourage pests. That puts ferrets squarely in the middle, between dogs and cats, in terms of how long they have associated with humans.

Is a ferret the right pet for you?