How to Take Care of a Ferret - Outdoor Safety

Hi, I’m Robin from Ferret First, teaching you how to take care of your ferrets, and 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’re gonna wanna 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 set up an outdoor playpen. They sell some playpens commercially that are made of wire and 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 rumping in the snow. As I mentioned, ferrets do like to get outside and will take any opportunity, and that’s part of ferret proofing is to make sure there’s no way for your ferret to get outside or that you don’t accidentally let it outside. Once a ferrets out, it does not know its way home and it cannot 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, to have them, make them aware that your ferret is missing, what your ferret looks like and how to contact you. You should call all exotic vets, 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 neighbors’ home and show them your ferret and tell them that it’s missing. Most people don’t know what a ferret looks like, the last time my ferret got out, some lady thought it was a rat, luckily my ferret did come home and that was the only incident I’ve had. But it’s important to go around and educate your neighbors about what a ferret is and what they do, coz 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. And that’s what happened with my ferret, I walked all over and he ended up following my scent back home. Next, we’ll gonna talk about behavioral misconceptions and medical problems.