Ferrets - health questions.

[demonwolf444]

Well, ive done it again, same as last year, bought a ferret from a local fur and feather auction, since i dont know anything about this ferret, like my one i bought last year, ( and still have ).

last year i bought a polecat ferret hob, and know about ferret handling and basically i cant have done too much wrong as he is still alive now after ferreting last year.

Today i bought a new ferret albino type thing, also a hob, supposedly, and he is about 8-10 weeks old i would imagine, very small, and weighs next to nothing.

Would it be a good idea ( although they both get on fine ) to seperate them so they dont compete for food?

Further more, what sorts of things should i look out for in terms of diseases, and health, as a friend reminded me that the one i have just bought and put in with my healthy ferret may have diseases.. too sodding late anyway because i went and put them together as soon as i got home didnt i! my pole cat ferret gets very little attention, is small for a polecat hob and never bites and is easy to handle. I imagine i will have to handle this little one a lot more as its a bit more bitey.

 

Overall, i want to know,

What to look out for and why and what it could mean and if there is treatement, worst comes to the worst one of them has something and it gets put down or both.. at the end of the day they are tools for a job in my mind, i look after them and handle them so they dont bite me, but i really dont consider them "pets" ( im not being creul but i'd rather they didnt suffer. )

 

All the best ( hoping for the best ) demonwolf.

[Tug]

They will only compete for food if it's in short supply.

[Muggins.]

I generally keep new ferrets away from the rest just for a week, ferrets don`t do illness very well so if something is going to go tits up then it`s usually happens quickly. Next spring you wil have to split them up as the younger one will then be mature so most likely they will fight when the hormones kick in. If you put food either end of their run then they shouldn`t fight over food. What are you feeding them?

[Scully]

If you keep their means of water supply clean and fresh,and their habitat the same(ratching out any feed they may have hidden to minimise flies)then you've done all you can really.There is quite a list of ailments familiar to ferrets but until any show symptoms there's not a lot you can do.

I have often kept mixed sexes in the same enclosure as ferrets are sociable animals and like to play,but will seperate them when the days grow longer.I always ensure they have enough food to prevent them from fighting,but some will go and stash their own food and then go and take another ferrets,so it doesn't always work out.

[demonwolf444]

they got on really well, however on the night of posting this i noticed he had the trotts.. bad. Calling my friend he said something about either poor diet or distemper if the eyes and nose begin to crust up a bit, his nose did get brown crusty residue on it by the next day, being a white ferret i separated them and gave it the benefit of the doubt that it could be any old **** on their, i did notice that my ferret is very active compared to the new one which tended to sleep more. I really hope that trevor doesnt get it because he's a great ferret, doesnt ever bite, really nice thing, so it would be a shame if he did get it.

 

As for the new ferret i separated them both and put the new ferret in a different hutch, this afternoon i found the ferret dead with a fair few wounds to the body, and a also fairly beaten up rat next to it dead, i cannot guess as to what possesed a rat to squeeze into a cage stinking of ferret? but the ferret was only little and the rat was similarly sized.. ill never find out if it did have distemper? i just hope trev doesnt have it.