Your Cat Sucks; so get a goddamn ferret

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Pet Island > Your Cat Sucks; so get a goddamn ferret

Serella: Apr 24, 2008; Is that what you're posting?

Yay, ferts are back!

All my woozles are gone now, and I miss their cute faces.

Black

Black again (old and gray as gently caress)

Jak

Pig

Can't wait to see ferreting pics/vids, though.

# ¿ Sep 10, 2014 22:13

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 04:27

Serella: Apr 24, 2008; Is that what you're posting?

Cless Alvein posted:

FERTS

Yo for real, Herp and Derp are like the best ferret names, haha. I especially like your shameless little blaze. From my experience, the deafos are always odd, but not in a bad way.

I had one lil tubby deaf dude who would fall asleep in the weirdest places. Head resting on a textbook, sleeping curved around a door frame, inside plastic bags, in the middle of the floor in his back -- he just gave no fucks.

# ¿ Sep 11, 2014 22:08

Serella: Apr 24, 2008; Is that what you're posting?

Yeah, something made for tubby little guinea pigs would be too large for a noodlekitten. These were the best harnesses I ever found. It's a collar that has a clip-on attachment to make it into a harness, and both parts are individually adjustable for the best fit around both the neck and the chest. It also has a bell, id tag, and clip on the chest piece for a leash, which are super useful for tracking and containment. I've rarely had a ferret get completely out of one of these -- they can occasionally wiggle out of the chest piece if they wedge themselves somewhere with the intention of getting free, but the collar usually stays on once you figure out the best adjustment for each ferret. Even my smallest, who was 1.2 lbs at her frailest, was pretty well contained within one of these things, and they get used to them over a few weeks and stop trying to escape.

# ¿ Sep 14, 2014 23:07

Serella: Apr 24, 2008; Is that what you're posting?

Meles meles posted:

I have ferrets at work, they're all rescue/rehomes and get used a lot for education and handling.
This is Ned. He is the best ferret.

Omg his black whiskers :3:

# ¿ Sep 21, 2014 17:27

Serella: Apr 24, 2008; Is that what you're posting?

DAD LOST MY IPOD posted:

We have three. Last year we had two but it looked like Rocky was going to die so we got a third to keep Bella company. Rocky pulled through and the third turned out to be a hyperactive fat bitch who bosses the other two around.

Rocky is now almost 6 and has had insulinoma and adrenal. Had surgery for both and pulled through but he's a shadow of his former self, he's all grey and his rear legs are very unreliable. He's still a happy energetic little guy but lately he's been wheezing a lot so think he has a flu or something.

Sorry if I brought the thread down we gave them baths earlier today which they HATE but now they're clean and their cage is fresh too.

You cannot possibly bring down a ferret thread because ferrets are the most depressing pets.

I also did the thing where you get a third because one is on death's door, and he was also fat and boisterous, but in a good way. Ended up having three for a good while and I think it's the optimal number of ferrets.

# ¿ Oct 30, 2014 22:30

Serella: Apr 24, 2008; Is that what you're posting?

ElectricSheep posted:

We noticed last night that our 3-ish-year-old rescue girl had very swollen lymph nodes under her armpits, and the ones near her neck are swelling a bit. The symptoms just seemed to present themselves in the last couple of days because we clipped her nails last week and there was no problem.

She's eating fine and she's playful and sweet but I'm going worst-case and thinking lymphoma, especially because she's had splenomegaly since we adopted her and our vet's been monitoring that. Since her quality of life hasn't been affected we haven't gone with a splenectomy, especially given her history prior to us adopting her. Unfortunately, his office is shut down today but at least he works on Fridays and Saturdays so maybe we can squeeze in a visit this weekend and figure out where to go from here.

Is she on any medication currently? We briefly thought one of mine had lymphoma, but it turned out to be a reaction to his prednisone that was causing his lymph nodes to swell. I won't lie, it eventually caused me to have to put him down, but he still had more time and quality of life.

Here's hoping it's some other kind of immune response. IMO, lymphoma is probably the worst of the fert cancers. :/

(You know, in case this thread had gotten too light-hearted!!!)

# ¿ Nov 29, 2014 13:04

Serella: Apr 24, 2008; Is that what you're posting?

peengers posted:

Advice: don't bother training and put down puppy pads where she likes to poop. You can get them bulk, trim them to the cage size, and they work incredibly well. Ferrets have like a 60% hit rate on where you want them to poop because they're like OMG GOTTA POOP NOW OOH A CORNER.

Puppy training pads are the loving best. Buy on sale in bulk, f'sho. Put one in every corner. Every. Corner.

# ¿ Dec 5, 2014 04:14

Serella: Apr 24, 2008; Is that what you're posting?

CompactFanny posted:

4) litter: your ferret will not have interest in burying its presents. I never had trouble with paper pellet litter, but I have no experience with clay clumping litter. I personally wouldn't suggest it due to the dust and the possibility that they ingest some.

My experience with ferts and clay litter was that they stick their noses right into it, get bits in their nose, then get upset because :stoat:

BITS IN MY NOSE :stoat:

# ¿ Dec 14, 2014 00:24

Serella: Apr 24, 2008; Is that what you're posting?

Cless Alvein posted:

Yeah the ferrets have their preferred corner to poop in. I'd love to put a litter box there but it the door to my bathroom soo I kinda can't open the door then. Oh well I clean up a little poop sometimes or I don't notice it and the dog gets to it first. (ew)

Puppy training pads, man. One in every corner.

# ¿ Dec 15, 2014 00:27

Serella: Apr 24, 2008; Is that what you're posting?

YeehawMcKickass posted:

Tifa here is either trying to steal my soul or entertain me. I can't figure out which one.

I see you're keeping your ferret's habitat interesting. They love random piles more than anything.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2015 00:19

Serella: Apr 24, 2008; Is that what you're posting?

DAD LOST MY IPOD posted:

So one of ours found a hole in the kitchen cabineting she can get into that doesn't appear to lead inside any of the cabinets. When she goes in there I hear a crinkling like plastic bags. She can come out and when she did last I grabbed her and put her in Ferret Jail but it worries me-- what if there's rat traps/poison in there? What if there are holes and she falls in one? I need to plug up the stupid thing.

Sometimes lazy-rear end contractors who put together the cabinets will leave Actual Trash or other bits in there, so it's best to get a bit of balsa wood to wedge in there and block it off. I used to have to roll up a rug in front of the oven at my old place because one of my ferrets could fit underneath it, which is definitely A Good Place To Hang Out when you're 1.5 lbs.

HappyKitty posted:

If not for our current crop of herbivores (3 degus, 2 guinea pigs, 1 chinchilla - caviomorph supremacy), my wife and I would love to get a couple of furrets. We have ferrt-sat for some friends of ours in the past, and we put their cage/play area in our basement. Even after the ferrets left, the lingering smell of predator made our rodents incredibly wary next few times we took them downstairs to play. Pretty sure that having fererts in the house 24/7 would render our poor rodents completely paranoid

Yup. Small prey animals know the scent of predators. You'd likely end up with some animals stressed to death if you tried to add ferrets to your home, just the way it goes. I always missing having guinea pigs, but with a dog, cat, and ferrets (though no ferts currently), the pigs would just be miserable. At least you're good enough to realize it's not a viable option. I've seen homes with dogs, cats, ferrets, snakes, rats, and all kind of other weird poo poo that struck their fancy, and most of the pets seemed miserable.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2015 02:50

Serella: Apr 24, 2008; Is that what you're posting?

CompactFanny posted:

Never bathe the ferret unless you have to (IE they got poop on themselves). When you do, use a gentle pet shampoo and don't use too much of it.

Oh my god the awful smell of a freshly-washed ferret. :gonk:

Do never bathe ferrets. Better to spot clean.

I can't wait to move into our new house so I can get catsneks again, though.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2015 15:28

Serella: Apr 24, 2008; Is that what you're posting?

Maully Millions posted:

With the weather warming up, I'm looking to take my ferts outside (on harness or supervised in a play pen). Are there any flea and tick preventatives that are appropriate for ferrets? I'm tempted to use the kitten formulation, but I'm not sure what the risks are with toxicity.

For what it's worth, I'm in Upstate NY, where the wildlife and their associated parasites abound.

I'd use Advantage, the same as you'd use on a cat. In the past they recommended kitten dosages, but more recently my vet recommended the normal cat dose due to the way ferrets metabolize. I'd call your vet and check which they recommend -- won't cost you anything, and they can recommend what will work best in your area. In particularly flea and tick heavy places, the buggers can develop a resistance to certain brands, but your vet would be on the up-and-up if that was applicable.

Maully Millions posted:

Also, I want to second what Compact Fanny said about the Marshall Monopoly. In the two years since we first decided to get ferrets, I've only heard of two coming up at our local SPCA (where I have an insider who lets me know when they get one), and both of them originally came from Marshall anyway. The nearest breeder is several hours away from us, and may or may not still be actively breeding ferrets of unknown quality. The independent ferret market is pretty grim.

And the ones who do breed generally do so for looks and showability. As in, actually ferret shows where they worry about things like head shape rather than "did all of this ferret's lineage die of horrible cancers."

# ¿ Apr 29, 2015 03:16

Serella: Apr 24, 2008; Is that what you're posting?

Maully Millions posted:

She gots to get that delicious people soup!

Water that is not from the bowl is the best water. Unattended cups, splashes on the floor, bath water...

# ¿ May 30, 2015 15:43

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 04:27

Serella: Apr 24, 2008; Is that what you're posting?

So I'm adopting some dooks again. :3:

Can't wait!

# ¿ Aug 4, 2015 16:46

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Pet Island > Your Cat Sucks; so get a goddamn ferret