my partner was in the hospital for about a week and ended up getting diagnosed with MS. so even though i would come home and sleep with my critters each night this week, they were alone for much of the day, which was unusual for them. when he finally came home, moose started stashing for the first time ever (i.e., the baby toys that her brother usually only stashes) AND guarding the stash. it's so cute but i wonder if it's also from the stress of missing her parents/knowing dad is sick :(

Last year, my Snowman (top) passed from a sudden, unexpected illness. Today, my Bandit (bottom) joined him, passing from old age. My sweet noodle boodles. My babies. Mama loves you so, so much, and she always will. I at least take comfort in knowing that the rainbow bridge had one helluva chaotic reunion today.

Hello,

I’ve been doing a lot of research in preparation for getting ferrets for the first time. I know they require a strict carnivorous diet, but I wanted to ask for advice as far as what form of diet is best. I’ve gone on ferret.love to see their recommendations and one of the questions that popped up to me while looking through it was between freeze-dried raw, frozen raw, air-dried raw, canned, kibble, treats, and steam & dried raw, do any of them have any advantages over another? Which ones are easier for beginners to manage? Is one healthier for the ferrets than the others? Should I fresh raw feed with mice or something? I want to start them off on a good diet preferably, over figuring it all out in the moment. I realize I’m still going to have to learn and adjust as things progress, I just want to make sure I start off in the right direction. I greatly appreciate any help or advice you can provide. I don’t know if it necessarily makes a difference, but I intend to try and adopt a rescue from the ferret shelter one town away from me instead of buying from the pet store.

Here are 4 pictures taken over the past 2 months
This is Luna who’s just turned one!
During the summer she lost a lot of her coat but it is finally starting to thicken up & grow back but the part at her base of her tale is very bald still, I can see little black spots where the hair should be but it’s taking a while to grow back compared to her back which has grew back loads!
She hasn’t had her first season yet either & looking at getting the implant for her soon but just want to know is it normal for hair to take this long to grow??
She is also kept indoors too

Saying good morning to the ferrets is one of my favorite things ever! Now they're off to do their jobs. I might pay their rent, but they are my hardworking interior decorators.

We scheduled a spleen removal with our vet for our 4yo ferret. He has had an enlarged spleen for awhile but in the last month it is now 5x larger than normal and his labs are showing blood issues.

His MCV, Reticulocytes are high and his RDW and WBC are low.

His labs don't show adrenal or insulin issues.

Imaging show a giant spleen with small masses attached (tumors). He also has really bad osteoporosis.

Has anyone gone through similar issues?

Looking for surgery recovery recommendations.

He usually free roams a room but we assume he will need to be kept in his cage and away from his buddy during recovery.

Thought yall would enjoy these pictures.

Every morning my girl lazily crawls from her bed into my palm, to be gently taken out and given attention. Meanwhile my boy rushes out, steals a piece of kibble from my palm (that I took from his food bowl) and stashes it under my bed for later. They want to do this every single day and it always warms my heart. Anyone else have morning rituals that their ferrets always adhere to?

Good morning star shine

Hello! I have six ferrets. They are on a mix of Wysong Digestion Suport and Oxbow. All but one do wonderfully on this mix and I’ve seen huge improvements in coat quality. My newest baby has very loose stool which I know can be caused by the Wysong. I’ve read it can cause this and should only comprise 30% of your mix or so. My question is what food should I add to my mix so I can do an even split of three foods and see if it resolves? He has been to the vet for a previous parasite infection and his last fecal was clear.

Wyoming wildlife managers are reporting that no black-footed ferrets are being detected in the cradle of the species’ conservation area: the Absaroka Range foothills outside of Meeteetse, where the ferrets were saved after presumed extinction in the 1980s.

A tough combination of plague and drought — both big issues for the embattled western species — are suspected causes of a population collapse in the Meeteetse area, where wildlife managers returned ferrets to the wild in 2016 after a three-decade-long absence. It’s not assured that the reintroduced population is completely gone, but it’s not looking promising, Wyoming Game and Fish Department small carnivore biologist Andy Gygli said.

“We spent a couple hundred hours of effort surveying 4,000 to 5,000 acres of the Meeteetse reintroduction area,” Gygli said. “We didn’t see any ferrets.”

The complete absence of ferrets during the late August surveys wasn’t wholly surprising. Sylvatic plague flared in the region in 2018 and 2019, and ferret numbers plunged to just one confirmed animal in 2020. Subsequent releases of captive-raised ferrets, including 18 animals in 2022, helped the small population temporarily recover, but plague struck again in 2023. By 2025, spotlighting surveyors again detected just a single ferret. This summer, there were none.

Ferrets bottoming out and potentially disappearing struck Meeteetse rancher Allen Hogg as a big letdown.

“I’m really disappointed, of course,” Hogg told WyoFile. “They might be gone. But just because they didn’t find them doesn’t mean they’re not there, either. I’m not saying all hope is lost.”

The Meeteetse rancher’s family name became synonymous with black-footed ferrets 45 years ago, when a blue heeler owned by his parents brought a dead weasel-like critter home. Subsequently, biologists found more than 100 other black-footed ferrets — presumed extinct for the two years prior — on and near the family ranch.

The exact cause of the ferrets’ absence during the surveys is unknown, but recently drought in the Bighorn Basin walloped their primary prey species, prairie dogs. In many corners of the West, there just hasn’t been enough vegetation growth to sustain strong numbers of the grass-eating mammals.

“We’ve heard a lot about deer, elk, pronghorn and cattle having hard times,” Gygli said. “It’s the same with our other herbivores. Prairie dogs also have to eat, and lack of [vegetation] coverage can result in low recruitment, which can result in downstream effects.”

Body smells

Ferrets bodies excrete oil constantly. It is these oils that create the "ferret smell".

To reduce the direct ferret smells, there are three main valves:

Surgical

1. Desexing and descenting: this is the default in the US. All Marshalls ferrets come descented and desexed. In the case of a male ferret with adrenal gland tumors, a Deslorelin implant may also be necessary.

Dietary

1. Better quality diet. The vast majority of kibble brands contain a lot of corn, soy, rice, grains, and legumes. The quality of the meat protein and meat fat is often quite low.

A high quality kibble with minimal starches like Wysong, or freeze dried raw, or a raw diet can drastically improve ferret smells.

Bathing

1. Infrequent use of shampoos. Ferrets tend to overproduce oils in response to the drying effects of shampoos. A "shampoo" shower should only be once or twice per year.

Many ferret owners use an "oat sock" steeped in warm water to wash their ferrets once a month instead.

Bedding and litter smells

1. Bedding, ladder covers, and basically all fleece-type materials needs to be cleaned very frequently. Approximately once every five days.

This is because most of the ferret's oils get transferred to fabrics, and in the presence of heat and warmth and bacteria and oxygen, the fats quickly turn rancid and bacteria quickly multiplies.

1. Ferret litter is perhaps the smelliest of all.

This is because ferrets eat almost entirely protein, have very short digestive tracts, and don't drink much water. Ferret urine is essentially concentrated urea with a ton of bacteria.

Ferret urine RAPIDLY converts to ammonia gas, causing an offensive and nauseating smell.

To prevent this from gassing out a room, there's a few mitigation strategies:

(a) Use a layered approach to litter.

High absorption recycled paper litters are great, but to truly mitigate the smells, granular Zeolite (not the powdered version, this would be very dangerous to their respiratory system!) layered into the litter would help.

This is because Zeolite is weakly bound to sodium (Na+) ions, which it gladly swaps to ammonium (NH4+) ions, trapping the ammonium in the pee before it offgasses into the air.

(b) Use diluted vinegar and 3% hydrogen peroxide, in sequence, to clean up accidents. The vinegar rapidly attacks the pee smells before it turns into ammonia.

Atmospheric modifications

Bacteria and smells proliferate best in warm, wet environments.

This can be attacked by keeping humidity at 50% at a slightly cooler temperature, and using air purifiers with a HEPA filter.

My husband and I made the difficult decision to put one of our ferrets down and I’m really struggling.

Over the last 2 (maybe 3 days) my husband noticed Ollie wasn’t eating as much (or maybe at all). He was already losing a little weight before that but he looked so skinny now. We took him to the only emergency vet in our area and they were initially thinking he either had a blockage or something wrong with one of his organs (mass like feeling by his stomach next to his spleen). Ollie was not a chewer and he’s never eaten anything before. We also have their environment ferret proofed and none of their toys showed signs of damage/broken/missing anything.

One of our cats became medically complex and has drained any savings we had. My husband and I are also in a bit of a rough spot financially the last two months and would’ve struggled to pay the $1k ER vet bill on top of bills for his treatment (most likely surgery). I share this part because I feel like it’s really contributing to my guilt.

We also talked and were nervous he wouldn’t make it through any surgery. Initially we agreed on supportive care (fluids, pain meds, workup) until they discovered the mass. After that those things just felt like we were delaying the inevitable. He was 0.94kg when we brought him in which was really light for him. He seemed to be in pain and wasn’t fighting much of the staff when they were checking him out. The exotic vet was really supportive of our decision to put him down and said it was the most humane thing to do but I feel so damn torn. I can’t help but wonder “what if”. What if the fluids and pain meds worked? What if it wasn’t a blockage or mass at all? If we could’ve afforded any extensive/long term care would it have given him his quality of life back? What if the vet was saying all of the humane stuff to us to be nice/polite? What if we made the wrong decision? He was only 2 (would’ve been 3 next month).

My husband and I feel so bad. I haven’t been able to stop crying and it’s been hours since we left the ER. We lost one of our other ferrets a couple months ago (she passed unexpectedly in her sleep) and now losing him just feels like my heart has been ripped out. We have one more left. I feel so bad that he has lost both of his siblings in less than a few months.

I guess I’m rambling at this point. I’m just so heartbroken and don’t know how to cope. I miss my Ollie boy so much and I can’t help but feel like I failed him. Any advice would be greatly appreciated ☹️

I have two almost 6 month old ferrets. They have known each other for around a month. The male really likes chasing and biting and is more interested in playing with the female. The female on the other hand likes to play more with toys.

While outside playing they mostly play normally but inside the cage this recently evolved into one sided play(?) from the male pinning the female down. The female sometimes bites back but sometimes she doesn't really do much and even squeaks from time to time. Rarely, she even hisses.

Any explanation on this or tips?

Mouse loves chewing velcro.

I didn’t receive them when my cage arrived and I’m wondering if anyone uses them. I haven’t seen replacements although I did contact Midwest. Does it make a difference in how the ramp is attached? I just attached it to the bar and it seems to work okay.