After much deliberation, you have finally decided to get a new ferret. However, before you can go ahead and bring your new ferret home, you need to remember a few things. After all, you can’t just let your new pet come home and wreak havoc doing whatever it wants.
Instead, you need to train your little furball to know what behavior to avoid and what behavior to adopt and exhibit. One of the most important things to remember is that your pet should not be allowed to roam freely in the house in its early days. Allow the ferret to slowly and gradually become familiar with its new surroundings while still in the comfort of its cage. As the level of familiarity increases and the animal seems less stressed by its surroundings, you can consider letting it out of its cage.
However, keep in mind that the time your little critter spends in his cage need not be wasted, as it can be used to do something productive. For example, this time could serve as the ideal setting for potty training your new ferret. Remember that litter box training requires a lot of patience; so much so that it can take many months for a ferret to be fully trained, so don’t expect overnight results.
Ideally, litter box training should begin by enclosing the litter box inside a small room, such as a bathroom or toilet. Since they generally need to use the litter box as soon as they wake up and right after they eat, it’s best to restrict your ferret’s roaming at these times. When he is in the confined space, allow him access to his litter box.
The goal here is to get him to associate going to the bathroom with the litter box. Once a ferret begins to establish this relationship, offer a treat to positively reinforce the required behavior. As a general rule, remember to never use physical force to punish your pet because not only will the ferret not understand why he is being punished, but over time he will fear you and try to avoid you.
Once you train your new ferret to use the litter box, you will find that your relationship with your pet takes it to the next level as you will now be able to allow him to roam indoors with ease. However, before doing so, it is important that you take steps to ensure the safety and well-being of the animal.
In other words, you will need to ‘ferret-proof’ your home. To begin with, since these animals are very curious creatures and love to find their way into small spaces, it is recommended to block all small holes (whether inside appliances or in a tunnel leading outside). If you don’t, your beloved creature may escape, get stuck, or worse, get injured. In the meantime, you might also consider putting baby locks on various cabinets, doors, and drawers in your home, as this would prevent baby from getting hurt.
That said, since ferrets love to nip and bite, it’s imperative that you teach them that such behavior is not accepted. Once again, it should be noted that you should not use physical force when training your pet not to bite. All you need to do is yell a loud ‘NO’ every time your new ferret bites you. You can reward him again when he starts to obey.