On Thu, 27 Dec 2001, Heather & Aaron wrote:

> outside the house a 2 blocks away on one occasion). And about the
> smell......if you bathe them every 2 days then it dosent get too bad
> (if you wait longer then the smell is very overpowering).

This is actually not true.  Bathing ferrets this often makes their skin
produce more oils for the fur than they normally would, which is why in
this case the smell would be so strong after that.  The biggest concern
would be washing their BEDDING very frequently, because the oils from
their bodies and fur rub onto the blankets and other bedding and that
starts to smell very quickly.

If you reduce the baths for the ferrets to something more like once a
month, the smell scales back very quickly.  They will still have an odor,
of course, but is should be a soft, musky odor.

> You didnt
> mention how old the ferrets are though.......and are they very well
> hand trained? (If they aren't then walk away!!!! ferrets can leave
> nice holes in your skin if they arent used to being held and they
> aren't easy to train unless you have experience)

Some mixed information here.  A kit (baby ferret) is VERY easy to nip
train if you're starting with a young one.  The problem comes in when the
ferret reaches 3-4 months in age, and starts to bite harder and you didn't
teach the ferret when it was younger not to do that, or an animal that has
NEVER been properly trained or socialized and therefore has no bite
training what-so-ever.  Those are pretty difficult to handle.  We had a
couple ourselves, and Beelzebub put quite a few marks on my husband and
myself before we got him calmed down.  He was locked in a cage for a
couple years with no human interaction other than getting his food and
having his litterbox changed.

Michelle
Flutist

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