My Ferrets Favorite Toys

Ferrets have been domesticated for hundreds of years. Originally, ferrets were used as hunting animals to catch rabbits and rodents. They didn't kill the animals, they just chased them into their holes, so hunters could kill them. Currently, this practice is illegal in the United States and Canada, but is still popular in the UK. Ferrets are the cousins of the weasels and otters. The range in weight from one to five pounds. The average life span of a ferret is six to nine years, with some making it past ten years of age. Ferrets are smart, funny friends, and loving and they make excellent pets. They are quiet pets, and they are very easy to care for. Ferrets love to play and they are very playful with each other and humans. They are incredibly entertaining. They are known for their natural curiosity and mischievous behavior. While they live in a cage, they do require play time on a daily basis. They love to play with toys and explore.

For their own safety, ferrets should be in a cage when they are not supervised. They do have a lot of energy that will need to be burned on a daily basis. You will need to set time aside on a daily basis to allow your ferrets to run around the house and burn off some of that energy supply. Several hours per day is what is recommended for running time outside of their cages. We let our ferrets out for about one hour in the morning and another hour or two in the evening. Once they are placed back inside their cage they pass out. They will sleep hard for hours after they have had their play time. Toys are a fun way for ferrets to play and burn off some of their energy.

Some ferrets will chew on cords and other items around the home, so they should be supervised. Here are a few other things to look for when ferret proofing your home.

Openings - Ferrets can squeeze through small openings. Don't underestimate these little buggers. Crawl around on the floor and look for small openings under your cabinets. Our little guy found a small opening and loved running under our kitchen cabinets, until daddy blocked his escape spot. Check the furnace ducts and make sure the vents are small enough that your ferret can not squeeze through.

Cabinets - If your ferret is really curious, he may try to get into your kitchen cupboards. A strong strip of velcro should keep them out.

Furniture - Watch recliners and rockers. Ferrets are quiet and can easily be crushed by a rocker or recliner.

Water - Be sure to watch buckets of water, which may drown a ferret. Sinks, tubs and toilets should also be watched. We find it best to close our bathroom door when our little guys are running around the house. Their favorite place is the bathroom garbage can. This is where we can find them, if we forget to close the bathroom door.

Stuffed toys are some of our ferrets favorite toys, especially if they have squeakers! They love to run and hide their toys. We pull them out of their hiding place and they will run back and forth hiding all of their toys again. This is great for helping them burn off some energy.

Ferrets will have fun with whatever you give them. But, be careful, because they will also take your belongings if you leave them laying around the house. Ferrets love stuffed animals, but make sure they are on the small side. Most ferrets are about one to five pounds, so they will need ferret sized toys. We purchased a baby pool and filled it with plastic Easter eggs. This is one of their favorite toys, a ferret sized ball pit. Our little rascals spend hours in their ball pit every week. Ping pong balls are also very fun for ferrets. They cannot pick them up, but have tons of fun pushing them around the house with their little noses.

Plastic Easter eggs are inexpensive and ferrets LOVE them! Our ferrets will chase them around the house with their little noses. It's fun for us to watch, because they are so sure they are going to pick the egg up and run to hide it, but it's too big and they can only push it around with their noses. While our ferrets have fun with their plastic Easter eggs in their kiddie pool, they have just as much fun if we throw a few of them on the floor for them to chase around the house.

There are a lot of great toys you can purchase for your ferrets. They are playful creatures, so they love just about anything you give them. This is our Sprinkles with her favorite palm tree. It has crinkle fabric, which is fun for ferrets. Ferrets love toys that make crinkle noises, or jingle bell noises.

Snickers has a lot of fun with this tunnel playground. He is the baby of the group, so he has endless energy. He loves to chase his siblings and wrestle. We have a lot of fun watching our little rascals chase each other through these tunnels!

Our ferrets love the cat towers. They have a great time climbing up and down our three story cat tower. The love it when they run by and see one of their buddies inside the cat tower. It's fun to watch them chase each other up and down the levels and poke the heads out of all of the different levels.

Sometimes we shop in the cat toys for our ferrets. Our ferrets love the Kitty City line of towers and cubes. The ferrets love to run through these cubes and chase each other. The bottom cube is one of the boys favorite places to wrestle.

Ferrets love to chase toys. We love to watch our ferrets chase their toys!

Ferrets are know for getting into trouble. Their curious little minds take them to all of the places they should not be. If you want to let them out of their cage for some playtime, but cannot keep an eye on them, you will want to put them in a play yard, so they are safe.