Welcome to Gaia! ::

Sup !

I've been wanting to bring a ferret into my life and I heard it has tons of maintenance. Which I'm fine cause I own a Saltwater fishtank and raised a dog before(hes at my aunts right now).

Any ferret owners wanna chime in and tell me whats it like ?
Thanks !

hmm. Where to start.

Lots of poop. Lots. And they're pretty set in their ways, so it's difficult to train one.

They're wonderful pets if you're willing to make the commitment. I've got mine (4) set up in a 7x5 pen in our livingroom. There's a cage, but I feel they should be given more free-roam/play space if you can't keep them out all the time, vertical cages are really only good for climbing and sleeping.

After trying all sorts of various litters, boxes, etc, I ultimately found that newspaper is the easiest way to go. Put down a thick layer where they like to go, 5 minute clean up once it's used up. This makes it substantially easier to clean them more frequently, which make up for the lack of odour control of newspaper.

For odour control, I find that washing their bedding once a week, and washing underneath the newspaper location once a week, as well as inner-week paper changes, keeps things smelling as fresh as possible. My ferrets actually stopped smelling like ferrets, and now smell like the fabric softener. So it really makes a big difference! I wouldn't recommend bathing them unless they get into something that's unsanitary, because it dries out their furr and takes a while to build back up the natural oils.

You also need to be very cautious of dangerous spaces they can get into. Mine have officially been banned from the kitchen, because they peeled back some linolium and found a way underneath our cabinets and we don't know what's back there/if it's safe/etc. They even somehow managed to squeeze in the 1/2 inch space underneath our dishwasher is moveable and has a solid bottom, but the fridge has a vent system underneath and I was unable to get the ferret out until she came to me on her own. If there are any holes in your walls or venting system, I would seal them unbreakably before introducing a ferret to the room, and I would NOT let a ferret in a room that has a heater, nor vent access bigger than 1/4 inch.

You also have to be cautious of small objects. They can chew stuff up and swallow it. Blocks can be deadly, fast. Even objects which don't seem swallowable - when I was at the vet she said it is normal for her to get ferrets who swallowed ping-pong balls.

Most importantly, and probably commonly underthought - money. You should expect sooner or later, even if it's just of natural causes, you WILL have to deal with taking a ferret to the vet. They're considered exotics so you're looking at anywhere from 100-300 for a visit, and their surgeries cost 600-1.5k.

Also, if anything is ever wrong with your ferret, get it diagnosed asap. I was not prepared when my ferret became ill for the first time, and after 3 vet visits she ended up having to be put down because she had gotten to a state that was un-reversible. And I partially blame being financially unprepared, because at the first vet visit we did not get any body scans or blood work done (the vet said it wasn't necessary unless she stayed bad for another 2 days, and I didn't push the issue because I knew my mom was financially not on board- if this happens to you, insist on the diagnostics, because they need cures early or its too late), and by the time we even got the blood work she just needed to be put out of her suffering. I still wonder if we had gotten diagnostics on the first trip, rather than just accepting the vet's guess, if she would still be alive...