Saturday didn't quite go as planned.  I *had* planned to have a little lay in, walk the dogs and get on with sorting out the house.

Instead I found myself running around like a headless chicken at 7.30am, trying to find clothes and shoes so I could run into next door's garden and catch this little guy!

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No idea where he came from, I think he'd been out a little while as although he wasn't skinny he was very tired - quite slow and ploddy for a good while after I grabbed him but by the evening with a lot of sleep and good food he'd perked up well.  No sign of an owner as yet, I've left my number with the local vets and I'm checking selling/lost and found sites on FB and the local shops.  He's not chipped (or neutered, and my word that is a smell and a half!).

No matter though, I've had some great help from someone I know who runs a ferret rescue and if no-one claims him he'll stay here :-)  I've got a nice big dog kennel and run that is suitable, unfortunately a blackbird is nesting between the panels so I can't put it up as yet but he's gone into a chinchilla cage for the time being and is getting walks round the garden and romps in the kitchen.  He's in incredibly tame and happy chappy - runs over for belly tickles and doesn't stop making happy noises from the moment I get him out :-)

Hey I'll have him we keep Ferrets.

We have two hobs (1 entire one neutered) and two Jills.  We like the coloureds but have three whites, as the Jills owners were moving house, and the boys came through a fellow elkie owner who is in Ferret rescue.

So boys Rollo (Polecat), Ice (white) and Fliss and Floss the girlies.

I bet that tame he has gone awol with an owner putting him out in a run in nice weather.

We had someone brign one to us today thinking it was ours, then rang to say their neighbour had lost it, so we got him re-united.

It's a futret :-) and a very handsome one too

Only you...........

:-)  :-)  :-)

He's a handsome chap, despite the smell... lol
Looks to be the colour known as Sandy. My sister has rescue ferrets, and has had them for over 15 years, at one time she had around a dozen, helped to run a ferret forum and raised funds for rescue. She's got just 2 oldies left now, a pair of silvers that were originally dumped on a fly-tip. Her oldie white boy Brian (named after her neighbour) sadly passed away last week. They are lovely creatures, full of fun and frolics, rarely bite if brought up nicely, but are plagued with various cancers and other illnesses that can shorten their lives, as well as being very misunderstood and badly treated in a lot of cases.

I do wonder if a lot of the cancers may be due to poor breeding practises. 

I bet very few people keep any sort of pedigrees and probably they get quite inbred in any locality.

I wouldn't keep them as an indoor pet (they do have a characteristic smell that could build up to unpleasant levels), but love bringing them in each day for play sessions.

They are so playful, and it is hilarious how inquisitive they are and how quickly they get into things like bags and boxes.

They are also suseptible to human viruses

i have to ask what area do you live? i know someone whos male ferret escaped the other day and im just wondering if this could be him?

ive just shown her the pic and its not the boy she has lost.

aw,barbara,i had a collie called fliss,only i spelled it flyss for some reason,thanks for reminding me! i love ferrets,though ive never had one.
When we moved in here,twelve years ago,a ferret appeared in our front room while we were moving in,cos the front door was open,i expect!we put it in a cat basket till we found out who owned it (a lady across the road) charming creature. I once saw some one taking two out on leads in the woods.

> I do wonder if a lot of the cancers may be due to poor breeding practises.
> I bet very few people keep any sort of pedigrees and probably they get quite inbred in any locality.

I was at my sister's today and she mentioned that the two Silver girls she has, who were dumped on a flytip in their hutch as youngsters, are now 8 years old. That's old these days for a ferret... they tend to go from 5-7 years now although a rare few can make 10-12. She lost another of her rescues last week, and he was only 5.

I don't know for sure, but certain diseases seem to have been brought in via imports. If you like ferrets don't read anything to do with Marshall Farms in the USA, where ferrets are more popular as pets than they are here, their practices are abominable....baby ferrets neutered too young and sent out to pet shops with the stitches still in.

Yes and this early neutering makes them prone to the nasty form of cancer.  they also edescent them.

I don't understand why they don't just snip the boys and leave the girls entire and sell in pairs.

To be honest, most if not all of my sister's ones have been entire... the early neutering doesn't take place here. Hers were spayed or castrated at an appropriate age, once rescued.

I don't know if Desecenting has ever been done on ferrets, it was done for pet skunks for a very short time, but I believe it's no longer legal in the UK.

The cancers are present in the uk population and have been for some time,  as is Aleutian disease.

It's hard to find a good ferret vet, and I have to say I think my sister has done a great job in training up one of her local vets over the years, Niall at Orchard Vets in Glastonbury is now a dedicated ferret specialist.

> I wouldn't keep them as an indoor pet (they do have a characteristic smell that could build up to unpleasant levels), but love bringing them in each day for play sessions.

Oh heck no.  All being well he'll be going outside on Saturday or possibly even tomorrow, just as soon as I've got the shed part of the shed/run sorted - I'm going to add a mesh door for daytime so he can't escape it but have some ventilation and modify the inside some to give him shelves and a windbreak of sorts.  He's lovely and inquisitive but by heck, the smell is horrendous!  And of course, I can't give him much space indoors - he'll be much happier in the 5x4 shed, and even more so when he's got the 5x6 run on it too :-)

Denny - what a shame it wasn't him, I do hope they find their boy :-(

It might be worth contacting Vinya , she runs ferret life uk on facebook , she might of heard of a missing ferret. He looks lovely , just like Sid our first ever ferret , sadly not with us now. I hope he finds his owner as I know how distraught we were when one of ours escaped , we didn't sleep for five nights and were out scouring gardens all over the estate.
An old lady caught him eventually inside her greenhouse . We were worried that someone may hurt him as not everyone likes ferrets , so well done for caring about this lovely lad :)

Yes Vinja we know well, she adopted Rolo and Ice to us, we have the same taste in canines.

I've PMd Vinya, thanks for that.

Seems I now have a second new charge - I've just had a frantic phone call from a friend, she was at a friend's house and the woman's two terriers attacked a ferret that had wandered into her conservatory.

She seems ok, they've caught her foot and her back but it'd had stopped bleeding by the time I got to her and she's lively and happy enough.  Despite the hissing she has made happy dooky noises at me already, so that's a good sign :-)

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Poor love, why are so many ferrets going walk about this week.

I did say we had one brought round to ours this week.  His owner was traced.

Mind you you could smell him at a distance.  Don't know why but even the boys we have don't smell that much.  I don't groom them incessantly, but they like having their fur combed and a wipe with a wet wipe.

My sis has/had almost all of hers microchipped. Small chance they could escape, even smaller chance anyone would get them scanned, but she felt it was worth doing in view of the many that go walkabout. Some of her rescues were ex-strays and she could never quite lose the feeling that someone was missing them.

Are yours neutered Barbara?  His smell is because of his balls lol - apparently he's in rut so he's stinking the place up, charming creature that he is.

I've just moved the jill upstairs, he's going a tad bananas trying to pull his cage open trying to get out so I've got her shut away as far from him as possible now and all the windows open to try and disperse the scent a little.

He's booked in for neutering on the 22nd anyhoo - time enough hopefully for an owner to appear if one's going to, and after that he'll be a little more pleasant to live with I hope :-P

Sounds like you're collecting ferrets! I've always thought they'd be fun, I used to have hamsters / rats / mice / guinea pigs / degus / chinchillas / rabbits and so on, but I never tried ferrets.

One is entire, but still not particularly smelly, though a bit more than in winter.  Can't say Ice is any less smelly, and he si castrated.

Wow! That's one way to acquire pets, you're going to have a house full this time next year at this rate. :-D

At least they have found a good home, wonder where they are coming from? Love the coat on the first one you found, very striking. Good luck with them.

I have a hob and jill (Fred and wilma) they are a year old and I had them neutered at 9 & 10 months. Fred absolutely stunk and was getting really frisky and nippy, since he's been neutered he hardly smells and is back to being loving again!

There was an advert on a local fb page today asking if anyone had found a polecat - not your area Nikita but it caught my attention due to your new houseguests. Maybe they are all going walkabout as it's spring time - allegedly :-)

Apparently it does happen a lot!

Happily Malik's owner surfaced yesterday, he'd only come from a road or two away :-)  No joy for Arya yet, going to ring the vets in her town again tomorrow as the dozy mare I got last time didn't take my details before she put the phone down on me :rolleyes:

If no-one comes forward for her then she'll be going into rescue, she's come out of her shell and is an absolute little smasher of a sweetheart, very friendly and very fast!  But also understandably worried about my dogs, and being so small and slender, I'd have real trouble making the run I have secure for her (it's got 2" kennel mesh atm, she'd be straight through that) so for her sake it's best if she moves on.

It'll break my heart, they've both been fantastic little fuzzies!

Aw, pleased that the owner found their ferret, though sad as you'd taken such good care of them!