by Mary Beth Connor
(Centennial, Colorado)
Hello-
I currently have 3 ferrets, Ferris Bueller (cuz he’s naughty), Lillian Belle ( cuz she’s beautiful) and our new addition Sweet Zoey (she’s blind but loving). They love their beds that hang in their cage which are lined with fleece.
I thought what a nice idea to give them soft fleece to sleep in –Lillian especially adores fleece. She is the neatest of the 3 -always making sure to hit the litter box- so when I came home to find a potty mess outside of the bed I was upset. I am assuming someone is being lazy instead of going to the pan they went on the shelf.
Lillian raises her sleepy head out of the bed, yawning and stretching, licking my fingers, but didn’t make a move to climb out. Very strange because she is first up to get the treats!
I put treats in the dish and the others scrambled to help themselves while Lilly continued to lounge. I became concerned that she was sick then so I reached in to take her out of the bed and discovered her little claw had gotten firmly stuck in the fleece.
Once I reached in there she became panicky and tried to jump into my hands – creating a lot of pain. I could tell because she began to talk and she rarely talks.
I ended up unhooking the bed to get them both out of the cage before I could clip the fleece off her toe. Poor baby – she was so stressed!
I have looked for enclosed beds without fleece in them but to no avail- I have ended up making one out of corduroy and leaving the lining out.
Another occurence was with the small tennis balls that are sold as toys for ferrets. Mine like to chew on them, wrestle with them etc. I always track where they keep them and make sure they don’t get too frayed. However, Lilly got one stuck on her claw while I’d gone to work.
I have no idea how long it was there-but again she was pretty sad when I got home to find her trying to walk with this ball stuck to her toenail.
I keep all of their nails short as I can but they do peel and that is what gets stuck to things. It probably stresses me longer than it does the fuzzies – they seem to forget the moment the problem is taken care of – but I sure don’t…!
I take trips on occasion that can last several days and even tho my neighbors come and take care of the pets I can’t always count on them being able to check a few times a day to make sure all is ok. If I had been gone, who knows how long Lilly would have been stuck in that bed – no water or food- aah!
Knock wood I have not lost a ferret to anything other than old age but things like this sure help keep me aware!
Thank you for posting all of the info!
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