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Concerns over therapy ferrets used to kill rats at UK’s largest children’s prison
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2026
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Ferrets sleep a lot during the day, but for a solid 4-6 hours are very active. Ferrets should be allowed to roam around SUPERVISED for ideally 4 hours a day, too many people treat them like cage animals and do not provide this enrichment. Their not cage animals, but they are too mischievous to allow full roam of the house unsupervised as they will tear into something or get somewhere they aren't supposed to! I personally supervise my ferrets for almost a hour every morning and a couple hours every afternoon. A lot of times I can get away with making dinner and stuff while their out in the evenings, but one of them likes to chew on shit he's not supposed to and one likes to climb as high as he can on the couch but is a clutz and prone to falling lol. One of them is a good boy and doesn't really get into shit and kinda follows me around like my shadow, so he isn't too difficult. Depends on their personality I suppose! Usually my SO and I are watching them together so one of us can keep them from getting in trouble and the other can get shit done. I have had cats and they don't seem to get into the sort of shit my ferrets will lol. Never had issues with my cats getting into my snack cabinets and treating them like a dig pit LOL. I also have harnesses for them and take them on walks around the yard so they can sniff new things. Ferrets are awesome, but a lot of people don't give them proper care. It's hard to blame them because there's not too many good resources on caring for ferrets anyhow, takes tons of personal research. They really should be given lots of enrichment, and the less ferrets u have the more u personally need to entertain them. For example having one ferret is basically abuse unless you hang out with the poor guy constantly, where having 2-3 still requires attention but they can entertain each other to some extent. After getting my last from Petco it took 2 weeks after switching diet before he didn't stink anymore. It's a shame what they go through in most petstores/ homes :( it's almost like having a permanent kitten
Interesting how your experience is both similar and somewhat different. I only had one ferret but she basically hung out with me whenever I was home which was a fair bit as I’m a homebody. She would sleep in the bed with me at night and shadow around/help in whatever I was doing. I had my apartment well secured so I just gave her run of the place and she never got in too much trouble. Granted this was after she was an adult, as a kit nothing was safe and she had to be in her cage unless I was there. It was a dual level with lots of space and toys. I agree that ferrets get into more stuff in general and thieve too. With my current cat it’s more that she constantly wants to be within 1 foot of me and ideally sitting on me at all times. It’s relentless lol. Since she’s awake a fair bit more than my ferret was it feels like more work overall but I’d consider it pretty comparable in general. Please give your ferrets a pet for me :) I miss mine, I had her seven good years.
7 years is a decent life span for these guys! It's a shame the breeding practices for them in the USA are so piss poor. I was unaware of a lot of this going into ferret ownership, probably would not have supported marshals or Petco given what I know now but their such cute little bastards. My younger boy Lucifer is about a year now and still a riot, pabu and momo the older 2 we got as a pair are probably going on 5 and 6 years. One is just starting to show early signs of adrenal disease I think, may need an implant soon but have been very healthy! I'll give them a pat and a freeze dried minnow from u <3 pic of Momo my shadow
That little face! Thank you for spoiling them for me :) Yes breeding practices are horrible with Marshall farms. They’ve made it a monopoly so it’s almost impossible to get a ferret from another organization in the US.