Hi does anyone know anything about ferrets? I am going to be getting one for christmas and was just wanting to know if its better to buy a male or female one. I have a 4yr old daughter and i was not sure if one is better than the other?.

There's no consistent personality difference between a (neutered) male and a female. Males are generally considerably larger, around 18" and 2-5 pounds (that's 45 cm and 0.9 to 2.3 kg, in the US; European-bred ferrets differ a bit) compared to 15" and 0.75-3 pounds (40 cm and 0.4 to 1.3 kg) for females. Males' heads are usually wider, which can give them a more cat-like appearance. If you're getting an unneutered ferret, bear in mind that the cost to spay a female can be higher than the cost to neuter a male. See here

Here's some more about ferrets that may help (some info about having kids under six and ferrets in there)
Information about the need to spay/neuter

Anything else, just let us know.

I do know that all the ferrets have been fixed and de-smelled? what ever that means. I have been reading up on them and ive also been talking to a owner of one and trying to get as much info on what products to buy. She said that she bought some kind of daily spray for her ferret that keeps her smelling good? Have you ever heard of it? not sure of the name.
Again thanks for all the info that u sent me it really helped out alot! Thank you! We are going tomarrow to pick one up! So excited about it.

I've found a lot of ferret odor sprays.
Here's one.
Here's another.
I bet you could some ferret spray in most pet stores.
I also found shampoo like this.

Have fun!

My two cents worth, I like the males better, the females can be nice but LOL tend to be a bit moody.

Most ferrets you buy in pet shops are already spayed, and desented, although they do still have a sent, I happen to like the sent so no biggy there for me!

I would also not recommend getting a white one, I don’t know why but every single all white ferret I have ever seen is mean as hell!

I wouldn’t suggest you get one though if you’re picky about keeping things! They will rob you blind! LMAO! That said I just remembered I have to crawl under my dresser and see if I can find my pumpkin spice candles that are missing. Perhaps I might find my new slippers I got to wear once and then one vanished under my bed just as I walked by and said HEY! That’s MINE!

If you do get one I highly recommend you get it a collar with a bell on it! After you get your ferret you will find out why!

Best of Luck though! Let us know how things work out!

Thank you for telling me this now> LOL
We just bought 2 yesterday and boy are they a hand full! We got 1 girl and 1 boy both born on 9/11/05. But for some odd readson the girl is soooo much bigger than the boy. I dont know if the boy is the runt or what but he is so loveable. I would send picts but i am not really sure how to on this site. but thanks again and i will get ready tomarrow to go and get 2 collers with bells since all we bought for them was the harrnasses and they will not leave them on!

LOL!

Ahhh well they are a joy on one hand! Heehee

Ours weren’t too happy about their collars at first but they got used to them, somehow they slip them off and I have to go hunting for them but the bells are a HUGE help when it comes time to find one of them! The halters they just went wicked nuts over!

I know with ours they are littermates but Bob is absolutely HUGE compared to Oliver! I wondered if Oliver was the runt as well, he looks kind of feminine too but he is most certainly a BOY!

A local pet shop here has some really nice ferrets, I have noticed that their girls look a big larger too? I know the girls are supposed to be smaller but (shrugs) who knows!

I cant figure out the picture thing either, I don’t think we have that option here? So many times I wanted to include one of the THOUSANDS of pictures I have of our babies! I have some ADORABLE shots of all of them! My very fav picture is Heidi on her first Christmas. She is sitting in front of the Christmas tree wearing a HUGE red bow and Santa hat! LOL to this day she runs from me if she sees that hat! LMAO!

Congrats on your new family members! What did you name them?

OH! A great way to make a ferret let go of something or to make them knock off the bull is to grab them FIRMLY and buddy I do mean FIRMLY by the back of the neck and then hold them there until they knock it off or drop whatever it is they have. This is called the sleep hold and works wonders!

Good Luck!

They are such a hoot together. I was laying on the floor in our living room and our whole house has hard wood floors and we have some area rugs out. So we (my daughter 4 and i) were laying on the rug and all of a sudden i felt something going in my pants leg. I just layed there laughing. My fiencee came out of another room wanting to know what was so funny and i actually had to stand to my feet just to get him out. He (sacerties) is the male and my daughter named the fml and her name is "princess". She is slowley getting to know them and it is really going to take some time with them. Its funny my daughter who is 4yrs old calls them "Fellas" and not "Ferrets". We get such a good laugh out of it.
I know the pet store said that they will pick there own corner so we did and then they go to another corner and im about to get 3 more litter boxes just so that they have one in each corner. I dont know why but the male will not use it. HELP!!! im getting really tired of cleaning up POOP!!!!
If you have any ideas please pass them along.

Rolmao!!!

We did a trial run of allowing our ferrets full run of the house, the poop cleaning up never ended! I wound up with some many litter boxes I forgot where a lot of them were!

I finally regulated the ferrets to my room ONLY and allow them out of it on RARE occasions! I have a really big bedroom (24 x 30) so that works out good. Our house is a really old house in our town and our room was actually about three different rooms, one of them a dinning room and the other two I have no clue what they were, my grandma said something about one of them was probably a funeral room??!!! ICK! We knocked out a few walls and made it as big as it is. Therefore our bedroom takes up most of the downstairs, one of these days I really gotta push the issue on our OWN bathroom! Even so I absolutely LOVE our bedroom! I have enough room for my ferrets, entertainment center, my beloved window seat, the computer desk which is huge all in itself! Three dressers, a wardrobe, because there are absolutely NO closets! and my make up stand which has somehow turned into a ferret play house. All that and LOTS of room left over! Oh forgot the bed, LOL that too. My husband has to have his t-shirts hung up so there is also in one corner a divider and behind it two old coat racks with his t-shirts on hangers all over them, I don’t get it but I couldn’t stand those things where I could SEE them! LOL

Ok back to ferrets, sorry I get a little carried away when I start talking about my renovations and decorating LOL!

Ferrets do not take to litter boxes naturally like cats do. Mostly they look at them as play things and have LOADS of fun DIGGING in them! Rather than pooing and peeing in them like they SHOULD!

Although they DO make ferret litter boxes and these are triangle shaped with a really high back at the apex of the triangle. The reason for this is you stick these where your ferrets like to do their biz and they just LOVE to put their little behinds right up close to a corner when they poo! I used to have two of these together ever single place I found them using the pot! It worked kinda…

Once I decided to keep them in my room ONLY this method worked VERY well! For a long time though I had litter pans taped to every corner of my bed, under it of course, and ever corner under every single piece of furniture I owned! Then one day I figured out they were only using two of them in opposite corners of the bedroom so I took away all but 4, got each corner of my bedroom covered! LOL!

They use the one in their cage when they are in it too so I guess that makes 5 litter pans?

Ferrets don’t cover their poo either and if you don’t get rid of it at least every other day at the most every three days it really doesn’t smell too good!

Also I used to buy all that high dollar kitty litters, it doesn’t make one bit of difference for my ferrets on the absorption thing, smell or anything else for that matter! I get 5 pound bags from the dollar tree for a buck now and stick a little bit of carpet fresh in it to add any smell help.

It can take a VERY long time to get ferrets to use litter boxes.

Teaching them what they can and cannot do well LOL that’s FUNNY!

I taught mine they cant get into my window seat but I wasn’t too nice about it. That is the ONLY place I do NOT allow them to go so I think they got the idea because I went absolutely T totally friggin whacked out NUTS on them for getting up there, but I didn’t do it anyplace else. Therefore they prolly figured ahhh mom’s gonna KILL us if we go there and after all there is so much else to STEAL!

I also recommend if you have doors USE THEM! Baby gates are too easy to climb, my husband fashioned a door for our steps that is about 4 feet high and when they excape out room it keeps them out of the upstairs.

Oh!

Ferrets CANT climb! Not like a cat anyhow. They have to have something they can pull their selves up with. If they can get a good grip on the edge and haul their furry butts up they can climb it, other wise LOL they are out of luck! Therefore things like decrotive hat boxes, little steps, any kind of steping stone item HAS GOT to be REMOVED from their reach! That is if you don’t want them up on something.

I have also learned that all ferrets seem to love ranges! If you cant find em look behind your oven.

LOL!

Looking forward to hearing more about your two!