Tips On How To Make A Ferret Cage A Fun Environment
You may think that a lovely big cage is all you need to keep your ferret happy because it is after all, only a place where they can snuggle up for their daily snoozes. However, ferrets are highly intelligent little creatures which means they need loads of mental stimulation to keep them healthy in body and mind.
These adorable little creature get a lot of the mental stimulation from toys and other play things they have in their cages. They even get loads of pleasure from playing with their bedding which they love messing up when they feel like it. The thing to remember is that a cage is in fact your ferret's personal burrow. It's also somewhere they should be able to play, roam around and get the sort of physical exercise they need to stay happy.
Ferrets Can Be Choosy When it Comes to Toys
Ferrets are great characters and they definitely know what they like and what they are not particularly fond of which at times can be very amusing. However, when it comes to their toys, ferrets can be a little picky and possessive about the ones they really like. If they are particularly fond of a toy a ferret likes to stash is away out of sight in a favourite hiding place and then retrieve it later on when they want to play with it.
If you are new to keeping ferrets, you may find that you buy lots of "interesting" toys only for your pet to walk straight past them, ignoring the fact they are even there so they can run through the middle of the middle section of a kitchen roll instead!
Get to Know Your Ferret First!
It's best not to buy any toys until you get to know your ferret a little better because it allows you the time needed to see what your pet really likes and the sort of thing they just sniff at before walking over to something that's really caught their eye. You will save yourself a heap of money because the chances are the things your ferret really enjoys playing with are things that are already lying around the house!
Some ferrets love playing with toys that have bells on them or in them and take great pleasure is throwing them around their cages in the dead of night! Others love dragging small soft toys from one hiding place to another in their environments. Some ferrets just love digging in a box of bedding which can keep them occupied for hours especially if they've hidden a favourite toy in the box!
Cages With Lots of Levels are Ideal
If you find they ignore any toys altogether, then don't put them in their cages because they will only clutter up the space your pet has to roam around in. One thing that ferrets adore is a cage that boasts several levels because there is nothing they like more than scampering up tunnels and stairs and they shooting down them again. It's a great way of ensuring a pet ferret stays nice, fit and healthy.
There are certain toys which most ferrets really do not like and this includes anything that's very squeaky especially if they are high pitched. However, with this said, some of these funny little creatures will take great delight in playing with squeaky toys in the dead of night just to keep you awake. In short, it's best not to leave a squeaky toy in your ferret's cage at night, but let them play with them in the evening when you are awake!
Setting Up the Right Sleeping Arrangements
You may find that your pet ferret prefers to sleep in a hammock rather than anything else, so you may have to invest in a few sleep sacks for them. There's nothing cuter than a ferret asleep in a sleep sack. However, these need to be top quality products that will stand the tests of time and lots of frequent washes to clean things nice and clean.
Ferrets Are Easily Bored
The other thing you need to bear in mind is that ferrets have a very low boredom threshold which means they get fed up and bored with their toys pretty quickly. They also get bored living in the same environment and will rearrange things themselves to make their lives more interesting. In short, it's a great idea to swap things around for them on a regular basis.
Conclusion
The best way to keep a ferret's environment interesting is to change things around every couple of days or you might want to rotate things around randomly to keep your pet on their toes! You may find they put things back the way they were, but at least they've been kept busy and if you hide lots of goodies in their digging box and elsewhere every morning, your ferret will have great fun finding them when they wake up in the evening which means you get to watch all the antics they get up to!
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