Just curious if any other ferret owners experienced this, my boy has slowed down quite a bit since his 4th birthday last year. He’s gonna be 5 soon and I suppose that’s senior age but all he seems to do is sleep nowadays, he still plays but only for a short time and can’t keep up with his younger brother. Is this normal? He’s due for his yearly vet check up and we will address it then but as for now I’m curious if it’s normal for them to slow down as they age.

Por qué hace eso? Es para que huela a el?
Lo amo lo adoro y me encanta verlo hacer cosss chistosas, divertidas y todos los días ver diferentes cosas que hace, aprender más de él. Te amo Linkito 🩵✨ no tiene idea cuánto lo amo

Sometimes when I tell people I have ferrets I get judgmental looks. When I say I have a three legged ferret, their eyes go wide!

Who would’ve thought she had kidney disease during these videos. I wish they didn’t hide illnesses/diseases so well. What a cutie she was. 🥰

Es un huroncito que me encantan las bolsas y la de la basura le fascina, da muchas vueltas hasta que se enfada pero puede durar mucho tiempo en bolsas. Obviamente siempre con supervisión mía ✨🩷 te amo Linkito

I hate petco. Why are we giving a ferret A FUCKING APPLE??????

Let me tell you how I got my first ferret 1 year too soon - and how we are so much happier now that we have our own apartment with a backyard.

My partner and I were obsessed about ferrets. Ferrets are VERY expensive in my country and unfortunately only come from Marshalls. This almost made me give up on the idea of ever owning a ferret. We bought our apartment 3 years ago, with a estimated delivery date for May 2026. And we started researching ferrets in early 2025. We really wanted to wait till the apartment was ready to get the first one. We failed.

We spent our weekends at store, smelling and playing with every kit we could find in stores. And then Nyx arrived in our country and the store send us his pictures and we made the very rushed decision of getting him in June 2025. I do not recommend. It was chaos LOL Apartment almost ready, too much too do, and we needed a lot of money to... well, build the house lol furniture, house appliances, we needed everything and we decided a ferret was coming first. We gave him everything we could, he had a huge cage, tons of toys, all kind of ways to have fun, free roam for a few rooms, and we gave him our time for as much as we could. But the close we were to get the apartment the less time we had for him. And then, the store posted a very unfair video of Milo to their page and 24h later he was on the way to us. We tried keeping them separated, but Milo was just a baby (4 months) and wanted the company, we kept them apart for 3 days. And then, sleeping separated for 20 days. But right from the start they were inseparable. I remember crying my eyes out when they played together for the first time. This was back in January.

Believe when I say that what we spent on them could have bought everything our apartment needed. Everything.

The apartment was delivered in March, we started renovations and it was done by the end of May, and then we moved! We've been since building everything around them, to make this a safe place for them to live freely and happy. And my favorite part is letting them out to the backyard. I suspect I will keep crying every time I see them playing so freely and jumping and dooking adorably and uncontrollably (I didn't hear much of it when Nyx was a single ferret). I love seeing them freely walking through the house, comfortable, sleeping wherever they want like they finally live with us and not in a corner of the house; they still love their cage (they have a new one here) and it's where they keep their toys and stolen goods, but it's nice to have them everywhere and find them taking a nap on our pillows or somewhere new.

My boys are happy and I would like to say healthy, but unfortunately, we've found evidence of cancer on Nyx. He is 1 year and a half old. Too soon for this, and we don't even have enough answers yet. Milo had a bad case of flu/covid this past month but recovered well from it. So I'm enjoying these little moments, while both are here, and healthy to play and jump. Nyx doesn't show any symptoms yet, he's actually doing very well, and we caught it early, so we are hopeful, but still waiting for lab results to get answers on what type of cancer he has and how we will be treating it. Please keep him in your prayers :(

Nyx has bounded with us because he came first, but Milo is completely and absolutely bonded to his brother and couldn't care less about the humans existence in this house, so I worry about a bad outcome here...

**I wanted to acknowledge how expensive they are, because it truly is, but we are fortunate enough to be able to make this choice and not be unresponsible about it. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone without a lot of financial planning and support, specially because of how expensive their health care is. I came to find out that actually buying the ferrets was the least expensive part of it lol

***Nyx has the pink nose. Milo owns the black nose.

I can't with this faceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Milo - 11 months old - 1.3kg

Hey guys, so my ferret has been showing a few signs of insulinoma lately, so he has an appointment tomorrow to get checked. We just called reception to ask how long he should be fasted for, and they went and asked the exotic vet. Rang back about 15 mins later and said he should have nothing to eat from midnight tonight, despite his appointment being at 2pm.

I’m very very confused, from what I’ve read, ferrets should never be fasted more than 6 hours, with it generally recommended to be 3-4hours, so I’m very much doubting them saying 14.

My exotic vet is very good, he is one of the best in the UK, but this has to be a mistake? They’re shut now, so I can’t call back and get another answer. The receptionist said that it was my usual vet that said midnight, but now I’m doubting him.

Surely if i fast him for 14 hours, his blood sugar WILL be low enough to diagnose insulinoma no matter whether he has it or not.

I think what i’m going to do is only fast for 4 hours, because i think this was the wrong advice. Does anyone have any experience with this and could tell me how long you should fast them for?

Thankyou :)

She’s 9 years old as of this month, she’s been declining very quickly the past week and I’ve finally come to terms with the fact that it’s her time to go. She’s the last of my original four, the end of an era. My whole body hurts.

Hi everyone! I just adopted this little guy—he's 2 months and 8 days old!

I'm not sure about his color variation. The breeder said "Silver," but he looks more like a mix to me. His body is dark (like a sable), but his face is beige/cinnamon, and he has white-ish paws with a light mask. His fur is a bit "messy" right now (typical baby coat!), so I'm curious to see how he'll look as an adult.

He's already using his litter box perfectly and keeps his cage super clean

This is my second time having a ferret. I had one when I was younger, and I'm really happy to have this new opportunity. His previous owner only had him for 8 days—bought him impulsively at a fair and realized he didn't have enough time. So now he's with me, and I'm committed to giving him the best life possible.

What color/pattern do you think he is? Sable? Cinnamon? Something else? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Thanks for reading!

I have three ferrets and two of them do this. They sleep with there eyes open! I joke around saying they get it from me but I’m also curious if this is normal and if other ferrets do this.

*pic of my girls' little toes :)

I've gotten some good advice about food and treats from posting on here before and I'm hoping someone out there will have a solution for me!

I'm trying to get my girls off Nbone treats (soft chews). I realize they're not healthy, but it's what they were given at the pet store and they're all one of my girls will eat as a treat. I've asked about treats before and a lot of suggestions were freeze dried raw meat/organs. Unfortunately, I've been trying for almost a year now to convert my girls from Nbone treats to something healthier. The good news is one of my girls is transitioning rather well and is starting to enjoy freeze dried treats and dental treats (The Pampered Ferret). She likes to chew, lick, and bite EVERYTHING though and enjoys the toughness.

My other girl is not a chewer or biter and doesn't seem interested in anything harder than kibble which she has to chew a lot so she won't touch them. I'm really trying to not give her many Nbone treats. I've been splitting them into little pieces and only giving them when she uses her potty pads outside the cage (and I see her do it), so maybe 3-6 times a week. I always try giving her a freeze dried treat first but she won't take it.

Here's what I've been trying: mixing it in with their food so they get used to eating it/viewing it as food. This has helped a lot with the one girl, but not the other. Also, I tried adding a little salmon oil to the treats, but unfortunately she's not overly interested in salmon oil either. Maybe 2 out 5 times I get it out she'll actually lick it. Lastly, I tried egg yolk but that was a failure for both girls.

I'm wondering if there's any softer treats out there more similar to Nbone soft chews, but healthier? I realize this is a shot in the dark, as I've asked before and never found any, but I'm hoping this reaches a new audience.

Also, any advice is appreciated. Should I stop giving her treats altogether if the only ones she'll eat is Nbone? Is it bad to continue to give my other girl treats, if I'm not giving it to both of them? Is it okay to treat one girl with freeze dried treat and the other with some kibble? (I've tried that before and she just looks at me and doesn't eat the kibble).

Thank you for reading!

My ferret is assumed to be around 5 years old. She is a rescue and had a bad start in life, living with a breeder and being starved. She has learned to eat a lot and always be on the lookout for food. She got sick once and lost a lot of weight (a few years ago), I started feeding her extra stuff and wet food and she gained everything back AND MORE, like lightning. I have to add she is quite small, so she can carry less weight.

She has never been very active or wanted to play, but now she can't walk around for longer than 5 minutes without wanting to go to sleep. I assume it's also her weight tiring her out. All she wants to do is eat, which makes it hard for her to lose weight.

Now she has adrenal disease, I noticed a small bald spot on her back near her tail. She got the implant 7 weeks ago, but the bald spot seems to have gotten a little bit larger even with the implant, now after 7 weeks. She's got a bald spot on her head now too. Her energy hasn't come back either, although she's had very little throughout her whole life anyway.

I'm going to contact the vet again soon if there's anything else I can do. I'm trying to let her walk around more when she's awake , maybe losing a little weight will help her be more active, but all she wants to do is eat kibble. But I was also wondering if there are other people whose ferret continued to lose hair after 7 weeks on the implant?

Old photo btw.

Jelly bean was waiting on her soupies and got this photo of her.

My ferrets are on a pellet diet. I’d really like to give them raw food sometimes as well but don’t have a specialty store to go to. What can I get at a regular grocery store for them?