What are the pros and cons of owning a ferret?

Answer 1

* Ferreting - ferrets are used for rabbit hunting in some European countries (Illegal in United States) * Ferrets are used in many broad areas of research as animal models, including studies of cardiovascular disease, nutrition, respiratory diseases (such as SARS and human influenza), airway physiology, and gastrointestinal disease (such as peptic ulcers caused by Helicobacter pylori). Ferrets share many anatomical, metabolic and physiologic features with humans which has promoted their use as an animal model. Ferrets are widely used in influenza research H5N1 virus (bird flu) to test vaccines.

* Ferret are used in fur farms in other countries to produce fur coats and other fur products. The fur is called "fitch fur" Ferrets have been used: * in the White House to eliminate a rat problem * as an electrician's assistant * to help pull conduit at Peterson Air Force Base * to pull telegraph wires in London through small pipes * for centuries for hunting rabbits and rodents * to lay power cables. * to clean the pipes at the National Accelerator Laboratory at Batavia * First Cloned ferrets - named Libby and LillyHave you ever seen the movie The Beast Master starring Marc Singer? He has some pretty cool ferrets. They become his very good friends and even save his life at one point. You may want to consider getting two ferrets. In the movie, the Beast Master sees a woman swimming nude, and he gets the ferrets to take her clothes so she is naked. If I had ferrets, I would totally do that.

Answer 2

Pros:

They are friendly and can be great entertainment when you are bored at home.

Cons:

They can climb and get into things, they need about 4 hours of company (but that can be solved by getting two ferrets), and they don't get along well with other pets like cats and dogs.

This might seem like getting a ferret is not worth it, but I have a ferret and they are the funniest balls of fur you will ever see! :)

Answer 3

Benefits of getting a ferret depends on the persons needs. For a single person, a ferret can be companionship. For someone with depression, a ferret will make you laugh and smile. For someone whose kids no longer live with them, they can give a ferret the care it needs.

Ferrets are playful, sweet, loving, adorable

How do I know this? I used to have a ferret named Polly. I had to give her away because I started school and the family was getting a new dog (I have her right here now... Luna, yes that's her, says hi). Now she is with another ferret and a nice lady. This chick even has her own room for the ferrets for Pete's sake! I know right?

Answer 4

From my own experiences with ferrets I have found that ferrets are fun, intelligent, curious and funny. I have had several and enjoyed them immensely. One had an obsession with rubber. Didn't matter what it was, car remote, TV remote and such. I even had the bugger swipe my cell phone since it was in a rubber case. Another one was infatuated with socks. You never new when he would strike but if you were walking through the house in socks he would bolt out from wherever he was (under the couch, chair, cabinet etc ) and attack your feet. I would take them many places with me such as Home Depot and such.

On the negative side if you do not bath them regularly (once a week or so) the get a strong musky scent since they do come from the same family as skunks. They like to build nests so you cant leave them out of there cage to long or you end up with them getting up into your couches from underneath through the liner and such. I had one who was obsessed with stuffed animals and built himself a nest out of stuffed animals in a utility closet (his obsession was such that if you took one away he would hunt it down and return it. I placed one on top of my fireplace thinking it would be OK there only to find him scaling the split rock face knock it to the ground and drag it back). since they are curious animals the will get into everything. All the need is to be able to get there head into it to be able to get the rest of their body

This is a clip from an article I read:

While combating a computer networking problem, scientists and engineers at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado had to figure out how to rewire their units to communicate at the base's new Y2K missile warning center. The problem was, the conduits were 40 feet long, already filled with wires and only large enough for mice, not men.

Enter Misty, a ferret and a family member of the family of Lt. Col. Randy Blaisdell for six years. Randy remembered from history that ferrets were used to pull wires through tight spaces in World War II-era airplanes. Blaisdell tied one end of a piece of yarn to Misty's midsection. The other yarn end was tied to a piece of wiring. Misty crawled through the pipes and let her natural curiosity take its course. One hour and several trips later, Misty was finished, the computers networked and the small furry ferret was rewarded with her favorite treat: strawberry Pop Tarts.

Hope this helps