by TeeJay
(virginia beach)
I just adopted my four month old girl, Pandora. I have to say she is nothing like I thought. I did my research – I talked the lady at the store’s ear off about ferrets, and thought i knew what I was in for.
I went home and proofed my room, tried to rig mesh boundaries up behind the TV where lots of wires are and taped others up. I even made her a cool tunnel of boxes, taped together, and a small ball pit with a basket and small soft plastic balls. Then i brought her home.
Man oh man. I wasn’t ready at all!! … First thing she did was crawl under the mesh but to my surprise didn’t care about the wires so I took it down and let her be.
To be honest, our first day sucked! I was on pins and needles I’m sure she was sick of me by the end seeing as everywhere she went, I was behind her.
The name (Pandora) really suits her @.@ She’s crazy and when let out of her box (cage), all hell breaks loose. Not to mention I got a fancy water bottle with a lever, as opposed to a ball. She couldn’t figure it out to save her life. I didn’t see that she was’t drinking until later that night. I ended up hand feeding her with her small carrier bottle. I think that made us a bit closer. I beat myself up for not seeing sooner. Until the next thing happened. I put the small bottle in her cage until I could get a new one. It was a wire bottle. (Never using them again!!) I put her in to show her the difference between her space, my space and our space and she was cool with it, went to bed no problem.
I went out that morning to get the bottle and some food for myself and I came home to find my little princess hooked. She had knocked the bottle off and half of the wire was stuck in her mouth. I FREAKED OUT! Got through the bottles and food and tried to free her. I grabbed her and unhooked her, thank God she’d gotten it around her teeth, not in her throat. I scoped her and poked her to look for blood or pain – she was okay but scared. She buried herself in my arm and just shook for a moment. I’m glad she didn’t lash out at me. I sang her to sleep after the fact and used a spring holder from then on. Then the new bottle I got her the ball was too heavy or something so I ended up taping her small bottle to the cage this time and got her a cheap o bottle where the ball rolls back if tipped upside down. She seems to like it.
Yay now all my scary mommy moments are gone right? Nope just starting! This was all in the first weekend together. >.<
I let her have free roam of my bedroom, the only room she knows without being carried around. She seems okay with that. Now i know they get bored real easy but she must take the cake – she goes through every toy in about three seconds then challenges me to extreme battle. This is the rewarding part as soon as she starts to chatter or dook, I melt and forget all the bad times we’ve had.
But in all this I have realized she is NOTHING like I expected. She’s nothing like a dog, although her favorite toy is a dog toy, and much harder then my lizard ever was. But even though I’ve had her at home less then a week, I wouldn’t get rid of her for anything.
I love that little jerk head 🙂 She’s also got a very spiteful personality – she hates her harness with a flaming passion and I get it she’s just a kit. But it was the other day I realized how smart she was. I’ve been training her with her harness on for about an hour a day. If she keeps it on for the most part I’ll give her some chicken or duck soup after.
So what does she do? She goes and finds it on her shelf (yes a whole shelf – they need a butt ton of stuff not just her toys either.) Finds her harness and hides it in her tunnel. (The space between my bed and the wall.) Thankfully she does not poop in her tunnel! All in all she’s a pretty good girl.
I think our rocky start made us closer. She’ll come & battle my feet in the morning when I let her out to clean up before work. But I’ll tell you these little buggers are poop machines! I clean the box every morning and by noon there are four or five new ones to clean (oh joy). And if you are like me and like to sleep until the last second before getting up, not any more! I find myself up an hour early just so she can romp and I can clean up and get dressed.
She’s a love bug, though in the early morning before my 7am shift she mostly plays with me and has no problem going back to bed. However the hour between my first job and second around 2pm-3, she’s pretty mad to go back in but she’ll learn that after that from 8-12 or later she can go until she passes out. On the weekends shes a lot like me and will gladly sleep in until about noon.
But I will say I don’t think anyone is ready until they get their new baby. Unfortunately that’s why most end up abandoned, which, if you were wondering, will NEVER happen to my princess. I feel like when I filled out her adoption papers I took the vow till death do us part. I’m not sure yet if I’ll expand our family but it is a possibility 🙂
I really hope this helps others; also don’t worry about dropping lots of money on toys and treats. She loves to fight my slippers and play in my pillow cases more then her boxes, ball pit, and cat toys on strings. She does love her fox though – it’s a dogs toy with no stuffing but she talks to it and takes him to bed and fights him. As for treats she loves her kibble, duck soup, and chicken (raw). I slip her a Ferretone multivit but I have to put it in with her kibble or she won’t take it. She had some trouble with her hammock at first, so I lowered it a lot, it’s barely off the ground but she loves it to pieces. And she claimed her blanket well – it WAS mine then she stole it! I can’t hate her though – it was the fuzzy rainbow one so she’s just like mommy. Haha.
Again, I hope this helps just know that after a week together they are definitely a handful but also full of love and life. I would recommend a ferret to people because even if the four or however many hours of play are late, when you get home at eight or nine they will adjust and stay asleep or entertain themselves until that time. This may take months though.
I recommend getting your new pal when you have some time off – I got her on the Easter weekend. I was off classes Friday and work Saturday and Sunday. This helped us get to know one another a great deal I believe. In this time I got her used to short play times then extended ones at night. Again hope this helps!
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