Preparing Your Home for Ferret Life

For the sake of your ferret’s safety and your sanity, it pays many times over to take a careful look at your home. Ferrets are active and highly exploratory animals. They’re also extremely slender and agile. They can get into the most unlikely places. Examining your home inside and out for all the ways a ferret can get into trouble will save both you and it a lot of grief.

First, try to imagine that you are a busy, curious ferret. Get low down to the floor and look at everything low enough or having holes large enough for you to investigate. Rest assured your ferret will! Recliner chairs, couches, beds and a whole lot more that are common around houses are spaces that a ferret can and will seek out.

But those spaces can easily turn a curious adventure into a lethal catastrophe. A ferret that winds up under a chair or fold-out bed that is suddenly jerked open or closed can suffer serious injury or death. It will take considerable ingenuity to keep them inaccessible. When you can’t, be extra aware of where your ferret is before making any sudden moves.

Staircases are another possible danger. Ferrets can easily make their way up to the second floor and dash off between the rails. Unlike cats, that fall will frequently be fatal. Either child-proof the rails or put up gates at any entrance to keep them off the steps entirely.

Ovens or stoves, dryers, even refrigerators can represent a fascinating new world for your ferret to investigate. But if they wind up there without your knowledge they are likely to get harmed. Even when you don’t accidentally turn on the device, getting caught inside an appliance can be harrowing for ferret and human. Keep anything low enough to be accessible off limits.

Since they’re so exploratory even closed cabinets are a likely place to find your ferret when you least expect it. If the cabinet is low, they’ll roll over and claw the bottom to open it. Then, in they go!

Unfortunately for the health and safety of your companion, most of the things in those cabinets are harmful. Keep cleansers, sponges and other items out of reach by employing a locking system of the sort familiar to parents with infants.

Any hole small enough to fit a head through is irresistible to (and accessible by) a ferret. They were bred to chase rabbits out of burrows. But they can make their own holes too. Sharp teeth and claws mean the ability to get through a screen when they’re motivated. Consider an add-on section that makes the lower portion impervious.

The most important element is simply being aware of where your ferret is. That can be harder than keeping track of a two-year old human. But your peace of mind and the safety of your friend depend on it.

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