Ferrets As Pets With Cats

They re also very dexterous so they can open cupboard doors drawers and zippers.

Ferrets as pets with cats. What is it like having cats and ferrets. Cats use your plants as litter boxes and your sofa as a scratching post. Ferrets like cats are obligate carnivores. They need an extremely high protein diet with few carbs and sugars in order to thrive.

Dog foods on the other hand are best avoided since they don t really provide any nutritional benefits for ferrets. Ferrets can be trained to go in a box though not to the same extent as cats and there are bound to be a few accidents. Ferrets can also be fed with cat food. Ferrets are highly intelligent animals more so than rodents they possess around the same intelligence as a dog or cat.

Supplement with ferretone for a shiny coat. Most ferrets can be fairly reliably trained to use a litter box in and out of their cages. I can definitely say that cats and ferrets can get along. This is a big plus when you have them out for exercise for a couple of hours a day.

Otherwise they can be very destructive messing up litter trays food water and even chipping their teeth through constant biting of their cages. Still for the safety of all involved it is a good idea to supervise interactions between ferrets and any other pet. They actually get along very well for the most part. Similarly dogs and cats that grow up with ferrets are more likely to accept and play with them.

Cats and ferrets can also fight. Scientists believe that domesticated ferrets were bred from european polecats or steppe polecats over 2500 years ago making them members of the weasel family mustela genus. As a general rule but not without exceptions a ferret that grows up with cats or dogs is likely to get along better with them. With ferrets on the other hand you have lots of pet proofing to do.

After having them all for years i ve been able to trust that they re all ok. Ferrets should be spayed or neutered. You can find a high protein ferret food at most pet stores but if you re unable to find it ferrets can also eat kitten food not cat food. Whether they will fight depends on the temperaments of the cat and of the ferrets.

Cats and ferrets can sometimes get along but they often antagonize each other. Having cats and ferrets isn t really much different than just having 4 pets of the same species in my experience. Unless there is no other option any pet to pet encounters that involve a ferret should be personally supervised and then the ferrets should live in a different area of the home than your other pets. Animals with lineage related to ferrets include badgers minks and wolverines.

They also have lots of energy that needs to be spent on playtime daily. Ferrets have a distinctive odor that never really goes away. However it s best to stay away from fish flavoured ones since it causes litterbox odour problem. Ferrets prefer cats to any other kind of household pet apart from other ferrets.

Ferrets have long slinky bodies so they can squeeze into very small spaces where they don t belong. So if you have a dog or a cat as a pet you have at least some pet proofing to do. High quality ferret foods can be found in most pet shops.