They are like cats on crack. They have 2 speeds in my experiences: sleep and FULL BLAST. That’s living with three females and 2 males over the years growing up.
there are even jokes and proverbes on how bad they smell because they smell realy bad
but now something i just learned today
>
Why Do Ferrets Smell? **The natural musky odor of ferrets comes from their scent glands (most notably the anal glands) and is used for territorial marking**. Most commercially available ferrets in the United States are “de-scented,” which means that they have gone through a **surgical procedure** to remove their anal glands
im with you on this
knowing that you have to perform a "surgical procedure" to make a wild animal a pet basicaily only for entertainment just leave these animals alone
we as a civilisation also have to many dogs and cats as pets!
and no im not saying you cant/wont get emotionally attached an love them but from a morally point its sad.
Ferrets are not wild animals anymore, they're the product of the domestication of european polecats. As a result, they can't survive in the wild anymore.
Also, here in Europe the removal of scent glands is illegal, as it is a "convenience procedure". In other words, unless it is for medical reasons (like, to prevent an infection), you can't just say "I don't like it, remove it".
I've had many foster ferrets over the years, and "poofing" (glands discharge) only happen every other month, or week if they get really stimulated. It smells bad, but as long as you open windows to ventilate, it fades away within a few minutes.
i mean, appeal to nature is a fallacy. being more natural doesn't make something better. if removing the stink glands from an animal opens it up to an easier, more pleasant life with companionship in the form of an owner, I feel like it's not that bad.
Polecats are the wild version of ferrets. They're very clever for their size and are vicious when they want to be so humans domesticated them a couple of millennia ago as a pocket sized hunting machine.
I've seen skunk as pets who had that done too.
I got to touch the fur and paws etc. I loved it.
Still agree with you tho and think there are animals that shouldn t be pets.
Roughly like gas station bathroom that needed to be cleaned a week ago and you don't want to think about the stain on the wall.
Literally went to someones house that had dogshit all over the floor (I hope they're doing better now) and their house smelled slightly better than any ferret I've held.
We have ferrets at the zoo, and just walking past their enclosure stinks so bad makes it hard to breathe. I guess if you keep them outside as a pet, same with squirrels, and clean their space a lot it will be bearable.
People keep saying that they smell bad and they do if (like with any other pet) you don't clean up after them.
They do generally have their distinct smell however it's not at all strong or noticeable so long as you clean their litterboxes.
I've had my ferrets for about 5 years now and sure it's a bit of work to clean their litterboxes in the morning and in the evening but it's not much different to a cat. Also cleaning their cage once a week (changing cushions, scrubbing the surfaces of the cage with an antibacterial solution and wiping their litterboxes) helps. You get into that routine fairly quickly.
If the litterboxes seem like too much work you could also get puppypads.
I've also had pet rats before and they smelled way worse bc they'd just defecate everywhere. Ferrets, you can potty train somewhat.
No, it’s entirely dependent on their diet, feed them crap food they will stink. I feed mine raw meat and they smell fine to me compared to other carpet sharks on kibble.
They always stink, that's just the odor. Ive looked after one that was on a fresh meat meal plan and it stank. It's their body door aswel. And the more you wash them, the more of the smelly greasy substance they produce on their skin.
My husky had a few more gears in between than the ferrets did. Granted he was a rescue so there was “oh god please don’t eat me!” And “are you sure I can eat this?” Then there was the one with my toddlers “ok, I like that you are smaller than me, oh you’re petting me- ok please go away now, here have a kiss and… go away! Why are you still here?” (I LOVED watching him come out of his shell and how he would eventually turn it around to where he was seeking love from my girls and they got tired of his climbing into their laps! RIP G, you were the bestest-good boy, and we miss you).
Ferrets are amazing pets. They're at this level of energy maybe 1-2hrs of the day, the rest they're sleeping or eating. And if you have more than one ferret (which you should, they are too social to be alone), they mostly get those wiggles out between each other.
They can be a bit of a challenge but less so than dogs, imo. You just need to get your care right and clean up the torrent of poops they unleash in reasonable time.
Jesus, I would feel a LOT of pressure if I were a ferret owner!
"Dote on my new little ones, boss. Do it lovingly and sincerely with every single one or I will kill them for you!"
Actually I think from memory it's the males that stink. The females don't. I had one growing up. I remember we were renovating the bathroom and the little bugger went missing. We found him eventually in the area where we had just done some gyprocking. We had to make a hole in the new wall for him just to get him out.
My god, I'll never forget that smell... My best friend from high schools older brother kept 2-3 ferrets locked up in his room in their 3 story house- the brother lived on the 3rd floor and when I'd open the ground floor front door I'd get punched in the face with that ferret smell. As you got deeper into the house and went to the 2nd floor it got immensely, eye-watering worse... I was only on the 3rd floor a few times and it was like a smog of stench as you'd climb the stairs to the top floor 🤢 He was also an extremely messy person whose entire floor was always covered in dirty clothes and misc stuff so often that when they sold the house he forgot he had carpet in his room... Somehow even though he was at the most a 6.5 he had the hottest girlfriend I've ever seen that also lived with him 24/7 for over 8 years in that room and didn't care about the constant smell & mess. She ended up breaking up with him not because of the disgusting way he lived but because he never wanted to talk about getting married. He tried winning her back for months and then once he realized he screwed up and she was gone, the most he was ever able to date again were 3-4.5 kinds of girls who refused to move in until his last ferret passed away- talk about catching the game winning touchdown and fumbling the ball...
After nine years, if somebody tried coming back and saying they were ready to settle down, I’m sure they would’ve gotten back together. But unfortunately for him she realized how easy it is for a gorgeous girl to date and probably dated someone who was clean and woke right the fuck up.
I've never met a ferret owner who wasn't completely nose blind. They always say that *their* ferret doesn't stink because they clean it, and it's just always a lie.
I'm in the UK and have met maybe...6? 6 ferret owners that is, each usually had two ferrets.
There was a guy I used to live by who'd take his out on a lead, I'd see them walking round quite a lot.
From what I understand they used to be more common.
From my memory it's an odd musky stale smell mixed with hints of urine and feces. Every person I've ever know that had a ferret's house smelled like that. Absolutely adorable animals but they are past that "livestock" line where the smells get a lot more offensive.
As an old ferret owner this depends a lot on the owner. Ferrets as any other pet will make your house smell, you like it or not. Tons of ferret owners don't care to learn about their pet and make the big mistake of bathing them rather often thinking thay this make the smell better.
The thing is that ferrets smell comes from the oil that coats their fur. So if you bath them often , their natural balance goes to hell and their body starts producing more oil as compensation, which ofc makes them smell worse. That's why is recommended to bath them once per month as maximum. If you take care of that basic rule, they don't smell so hard except when on heat. On heat they are truly stinkies
Sooo....they stink all the time. That's what ferret owners don't seem to get. The cleanest ferret in the world everyone else can smell from 100ft away. When you live with ferrets we can smell you 100ft away. If you think this doesn't apply to you then you're one of the delusional people being discussed. There is no such thing as ferret or ferret owner that doesn't stink to high heaven. That's ok. Personally I like the smell, the same way I like the smell of gasoline. It's still foul to 99% of people.
This is the sort of delusion I'm talking about. What do you mean they only smell in heat? Female ferrets are in heat march-september, so they smell for MONTHS ON END, even if you bathe them perfectly. I'm sorry, they just smell, even if you're the most vigilant owner.
Those are two different things. They have their characteristic musky smell, but if you change and wash their stuff often enough it's not that bad. There is nothing else you can do against their natural smell, just like dogs have their own, which not all people are fond of.
They also have scent glands, but have no real control over them (unlike their cousins, the european polecat). They usually poof when they get overly excited or scared, or sometimes for no reason at all during their sleep. That fucking stinks, and I say that as a ferret owner !
>The females don't
Yes, they do. All ferrets stink, even if you go nose blind to it. Even if you are super diligent with cage maintenance, there is still a distinct ferret aroma that those adorable tube rats generate.
No, they all stink. Even with their scent glands removed, they still stink. I had them growing up, and I can still smell them just writing this almost 30 years later.
A kid I went to school with had one and it did not smell I do not know its gender. But it would occasionally grab bags of weed and bring them under the bed.
They're not really that close. They're part of the same superfamily, but ferrets share close family with badgers, otters, wolverines, etc. They are Mustelidae. Skunks are Mephitidae.
A skunk is as closely related to a ferret as a red panda is.
Did you know originally Uncle Ben didn’t say that it was an omniscient narrator (and it was also ‘with great power there must also come-great responsibility’—-it was a warning more than a moral obligation)
It was never attributed to Uncle Ben until 1987 25 years later
Uncle Ben is never actually shown saying it in the comics until 2002-the same year Raimi released the first Spider-Man movie where he says it
I had hamsters as a kid and when they had babies as a 8 year old I didn’t know better and touched some of them. I came back to a bloodbath of snapped necks and eaten babies. A little traumatic for a child that was just trying to pet the babies.
I remember as a teenager my girl Ferret gave birth in my lap and I was terrified because before then I had been told never touch baby animals because they'll be rejected by their mum's if they have my scent on them.
So teen me was very surprised when my girl not only gave birth to all her babies in my lap, but also made me hold each one (and proceeded to make me her babies baby sitter when she had had enough snd needed her own time. She'd bring them to me, then go off and do whatever for an hour or so 😅🤣).
Didn't understand what was happening, or why but I've cared for many pregnant ferrets over the years and this kept consistently happening. I only learnt in the last year or so that my girls did this because they saw me as their leader, which makes me so happy and honoured because all I want is to give them and their babies the best lives ever
I used to breed ferrets, mainly for hunting. I did have a few I would consider pets as well. At one stage I had about a dozen or more adults and about 20-30 kits. Delightful little creatures they are.
Ferrets are mustelids, a group that includes things like honey badgers and wolverines. They took the cute route in evolution, but the blood of a badass predator flows through their veins.
Breeding them you find this out quickly, if they get a good bite on a finger they go full lock-jaw on you. In most cases I could get them off but a couple times I got bitten real good, it took about 20 minutes to get one to let go, I tried prying with a stick but they bite harder, I had to use heat close to its nose to finally let me go.
They don't fuck around that's for sure
Yep, the ol fellas showed me how to do it. Never did it until I needed to that one time. I felt bad doing it, but 4 big holes in my finger became my main priority
Yep. I didn't mention them because people think they're adorable and not terrifying because they haven't seen jaguars run in terror from giant river otters. If the third biggest cat in the world, one who routinely jumps in the water to fight crocodilians bigger than itself on their own turf, is scared of you...
Rabbit hunting, farmers would ask if we could clear the area of rabbits. Find a burrow, put nets on as many holes you can find then send it the ferrets.
The rabbits get chased out and caught in the net. Job done. The biggest issue is if the ferret catches the rabbit in the burrow, I've had ferrets catch a bunny, have a snack then a snooze. I had a ferret that could sometimes force the snoozy ferret out and if not, you wait. Sometimes hours.
Once we had to leave with a ferret still in the burrow, we came back about two weeks later and flushed him out with other ferrets but by then it had gone full feral.
Some of the less patient ol farts would pour petrol in the hole and try smoking the ferret out.
Also, funny as fuck comment, I so needed a good chuckle.
Bunnies and mustelids in general. A cousin of the ferret - the stoat - has such a ferocious war dance that it causes rabbits to be hypnotised, and easy prey. A stoat is about a quarter of the size of an average rabbit.
I didn't dare try and pick it up. My Dad tried, and it was jumping at him up to knee high, he ended up chucking a blanket over it and let someone else have it.
We really did try everything, many hours of waiting. The ferret in question was really big and snoozy, none of the ferrets could nudge him out.
Also, you would be amazed how quick they adapt. When we finally got him out 2 weeks later he was heaps bigger (fatter)
I did this for a long time too. In Australia. They do it in parts of England alongside lurcher hounds too.
They're funny little bastards, one bit through my thumb nail once and would not let go, that was a pain I hope never to experience again. And yeah, they smell, it is what it is.
Very efficient way to clear out a rabbit warren that's for sure.
They're really cute but after owning one for awhile.
They made me realize some people don't have a sense of smell. Like at all.
This isnt shade but if you like the smell of balls then they are a good match for you. It is that kind of musk combined with a pissy understone and acrid ambience. As best I can desribe it to people with working nostrils.
I had a soccer coach growing up that had a pet ferret that went with him everywhere. It was cute and affectionate but it smelled so bad. Like it just emitted musk on everything it came in contact with. His car smelled gross and it was even worse in the summer months
I would love to care for a ferret but I dated a girl once who had two ferrets and they carried a very unique scent with them and I was wondering whether it really was the ferrets or poor maintenance/housekeeping from my date.
Ferret owner for 6 years here. They do have an animal musk about them, but in my experience it's not any worse than a dog's natural smell. (They do however sometimes fart which can be awful, for about 20 mins - it lingers) Most of the bad smells that I've heard complained about with ferrets is usually due to poor care:
- change their bedding often. The strongest part of their smell comes from the oil on their skin. They looove to rub that off over their bedding, which makes the bedding smell! Imo best bedding is just fabric - easily washable and reusable
- keep their litter box clean. These tiny carnivores love to poop, and their urine can smell pretty strong when wet
- DON'T bathe them more than twice a year. Sounds counterproductive, but regular bathing dries their skin and causes their smelly skin oil to overproduce, making them stinker
- feed them an appropriate diet. Any fish or fish oil makes them smell a lot worse. They are obligate carnivores though. You can get ferret specific kibbles, and they love a good raw egg, or some chopped kidney.
- have some airflow in whatever room they spend most of their time to avoid the musk building/lingering
Do those things, and they're amazing companion pets. They bond really hard to humans, even if you have more than one ferret (which I'd advise). They love hanging out with you and learning tricks. They're such smart and unique creaturs. Sometimes I take mine on walks around town on a leash!
My family had ferrets when I was a kid
We were terrible ferret owners. Their favorite snacks were mixed berry cheerios 💀 They had free run of the house. They would sneak under the bed covers at night and bite our toes. I don't think my parents ever washed their bedding. And any time someone came into possession of a ferret they'd bring it to us, so every 1-2 years we'd have another new one.
Sometimes I really miss having them, I think I could do better now
Had friend who made ferret tracker vests for hunting. Put on ferret. Take shovel. ( this was about 50 years ago.)
In the distant past people would break the canine teeth off ferrets to stop them killing underground.
If I understand correctly, the mothers bring their babes to the human so their babies will have the human’s scent. Otherwise the mom won’t claim them as her own. In the wild it would be the father, not a human.
They are funny as fuck but horrible pets great working animals for hunters and environment rodent control.. They better to be kept outside in groups in a nice enclosure which is easy to clean and hard for them to escape from with loads of things for them to do with lots of regular changes to keep things interesting.
A ferret looks like an amazing pet but i got tired just watching her energy. It's a challenging pet to raise.
They are like cats on crack. They have 2 speeds in my experiences: sleep and FULL BLAST. That’s living with three females and 2 males over the years growing up.
Yeah they are intensely fun but the SMELL
Do they really smell THAT bad? Like in comparison to other pets? I’ve heard this a few times now.
there are even jokes and proverbes on how bad they smell because they smell realy bad but now something i just learned today > Why Do Ferrets Smell? **The natural musky odor of ferrets comes from their scent glands (most notably the anal glands) and is used for territorial marking**. Most commercially available ferrets in the United States are “de-scented,” which means that they have gone through a **surgical procedure** to remove their anal glands
I don’t know how to feel about this information
And I'm not sure how I feel about beaver butt juices smelling similar to vanilla. 🤔 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castoreum
Binturong pee smeels like buttered popcorn
I learned about this recently and I can’t help but wonder about the sick fuck that found this out.
Beaver pelts were a valuable commodity for awhile. You're gonna smell everything as you disect the animal.
someone has definitely tasted.
I feel like you meant “sick fuck” from the depths of your soul 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Oh I did
Ah yiss, I needed that guffaw 🙃
https://youtube.com/shorts/Qs2rXn4p7aQ?si=Hcol--4UWbtN5XvF
TIL many redditors need their anal glands removed
im with you on this knowing that you have to perform a "surgical procedure" to make a wild animal a pet basicaily only for entertainment just leave these animals alone we as a civilisation also have to many dogs and cats as pets! and no im not saying you cant/wont get emotionally attached an love them but from a morally point its sad.
Ferrets are not wild animals anymore, they're the product of the domestication of european polecats. As a result, they can't survive in the wild anymore. Also, here in Europe the removal of scent glands is illegal, as it is a "convenience procedure". In other words, unless it is for medical reasons (like, to prevent an infection), you can't just say "I don't like it, remove it". I've had many foster ferrets over the years, and "poofing" (glands discharge) only happen every other month, or week if they get really stimulated. It smells bad, but as long as you open windows to ventilate, it fades away within a few minutes.
Wait till you find out what we do to cats and dogs
Ferrets have been domesticated for over 2000 years and aren't wild animals.
i mean, appeal to nature is a fallacy. being more natural doesn't make something better. if removing the stink glands from an animal opens it up to an easier, more pleasant life with companionship in the form of an owner, I feel like it's not that bad.
Ferrets are not wild animals, they are a domestic species.
Polecats are the wild version of ferrets. They're very clever for their size and are vicious when they want to be so humans domesticated them a couple of millennia ago as a pocket sized hunting machine.
I've seen skunk as pets who had that done too. I got to touch the fur and paws etc. I loved it. Still agree with you tho and think there are animals that shouldn t be pets.
They don't smell so great even when their scent glands are removed
This doesn't totally clear it up, but it does get rid of most of it. You can also buy an additive for their water that helps remove a lot of the odor.
Roughly like gas station bathroom that needed to be cleaned a week ago and you don't want to think about the stain on the wall. Literally went to someones house that had dogshit all over the floor (I hope they're doing better now) and their house smelled slightly better than any ferret I've held.
Cried laughing because of this beautiful comment :D Thank you
They smell like concentrated piss.
We have ferrets at the zoo, and just walking past their enclosure stinks so bad makes it hard to breathe. I guess if you keep them outside as a pet, same with squirrels, and clean their space a lot it will be bearable.
My aunt had ferrets and yes, the smell is pungently gross.
People keep saying that they smell bad and they do if (like with any other pet) you don't clean up after them. They do generally have their distinct smell however it's not at all strong or noticeable so long as you clean their litterboxes. I've had my ferrets for about 5 years now and sure it's a bit of work to clean their litterboxes in the morning and in the evening but it's not much different to a cat. Also cleaning their cage once a week (changing cushions, scrubbing the surfaces of the cage with an antibacterial solution and wiping their litterboxes) helps. You get into that routine fairly quickly. If the litterboxes seem like too much work you could also get puppypads. I've also had pet rats before and they smelled way worse bc they'd just defecate everywhere. Ferrets, you can potty train somewhat.
No, it’s entirely dependent on their diet, feed them crap food they will stink. I feed mine raw meat and they smell fine to me compared to other carpet sharks on kibble.
They always stink, that's just the odor. Ive looked after one that was on a fresh meat meal plan and it stank. It's their body door aswel. And the more you wash them, the more of the smelly greasy substance they produce on their skin.
They smell strong. Like when someone has a hamster, even if you keep it clean you'll smell a hamster.
Either love it or hate it. No middle ground.
So they are like sausage huskies
My husky had a few more gears in between than the ferrets did. Granted he was a rescue so there was “oh god please don’t eat me!” And “are you sure I can eat this?” Then there was the one with my toddlers “ok, I like that you are smaller than me, oh you’re petting me- ok please go away now, here have a kiss and… go away! Why are you still here?” (I LOVED watching him come out of his shell and how he would eventually turn it around to where he was seeking love from my girls and they got tired of his climbing into their laps! RIP G, you were the bestest-good boy, and we miss you).
I had one for a long time. They smell like ass and steal anything they can.
Sounds like my brother
Ferret actually means "little thief".
Ferrets are amazing pets. They're at this level of energy maybe 1-2hrs of the day, the rest they're sleeping or eating. And if you have more than one ferret (which you should, they are too social to be alone), they mostly get those wiggles out between each other. They can be a bit of a challenge but less so than dogs, imo. You just need to get your care right and clean up the torrent of poops they unleash in reasonable time.
Do not get them as a pet. Most people are shitty pet owners & these lil guys suffer the most for it
TIL my daughter is a ferret
They go full blast and wear themselves out. So it's only short burst you have to deal with they sleep and rest a lot
I used to have one and she would wrestle with my dog. It was very cute
Jesus, I would feel a LOT of pressure if I were a ferret owner! "Dote on my new little ones, boss. Do it lovingly and sincerely with every single one or I will kill them for you!"
Look at my babies. Look at my babies. Look at my babies. I SAID LOOK!!!
LOOK AT MY BABIES OR DROWN IN THEIR BLOOD HUMAN
Wait what
Watch to the end and you’ll understand
Little worm-babies are adorable.
Yeah, but ferrets stink.
Actually I think from memory it's the males that stink. The females don't. I had one growing up. I remember we were renovating the bathroom and the little bugger went missing. We found him eventually in the area where we had just done some gyprocking. We had to make a hole in the new wall for him just to get him out.
My ex girlfriends flatmate had two females and they absolutely stank. Like...I didn't want to be in their flat it was so bad.
My god, I'll never forget that smell... My best friend from high schools older brother kept 2-3 ferrets locked up in his room in their 3 story house- the brother lived on the 3rd floor and when I'd open the ground floor front door I'd get punched in the face with that ferret smell. As you got deeper into the house and went to the 2nd floor it got immensely, eye-watering worse... I was only on the 3rd floor a few times and it was like a smog of stench as you'd climb the stairs to the top floor 🤢 He was also an extremely messy person whose entire floor was always covered in dirty clothes and misc stuff so often that when they sold the house he forgot he had carpet in his room... Somehow even though he was at the most a 6.5 he had the hottest girlfriend I've ever seen that also lived with him 24/7 for over 8 years in that room and didn't care about the constant smell & mess. She ended up breaking up with him not because of the disgusting way he lived but because he never wanted to talk about getting married. He tried winning her back for months and then once he realized he screwed up and she was gone, the most he was ever able to date again were 3-4.5 kinds of girls who refused to move in until his last ferret passed away- talk about catching the game winning touchdown and fumbling the ball...
Your story made me angry
Ohhh. Leaving outside the whole smell thing I feel bad for the guy. Anyway, I think we can blame the guy for not cleaning up as well as the ferrets.
After nine years, if somebody tried coming back and saying they were ready to settle down, I’m sure they would’ve gotten back together. But unfortunately for him she realized how easy it is for a gorgeous girl to date and probably dated someone who was clean and woke right the fuck up.
Dude probably had a big dick
It could also depend on how much you clean up after them. Anything can get stinky after a while, let's face it.
I've never met a ferret owner who wasn't completely nose blind. They always say that *their* ferret doesn't stink because they clean it, and it's just always a lie.
How many ferret owners have you met? I’ve never met one in my life. Is it common in your area to own ferrets?
I'm in the UK and have met maybe...6? 6 ferret owners that is, each usually had two ferrets. There was a guy I used to live by who'd take his out on a lead, I'd see them walking round quite a lot. From what I understand they used to be more common.
Interesting, thank you for your reply! I’m also hearing that they stink for the first time, how would you describe the smell? Haha
pungent and musky. it's like getting slapped in the face with a damp gym towel that's been sat in a locker for a year.
Wear the same underwear for a week and don’t wipe. Maybe 1 or 2 showers during that week. That underwear will smell like ferret
From my memory it's an odd musky stale smell mixed with hints of urine and feces. Every person I've ever know that had a ferret's house smelled like that. Absolutely adorable animals but they are past that "livestock" line where the smells get a lot more offensive.
I’m scotland have met 3, lots of people own ferrets and or pole cats
This is true, I’ll leave the house for a week and come back like god damn we live like this?
As an old ferret owner this depends a lot on the owner. Ferrets as any other pet will make your house smell, you like it or not. Tons of ferret owners don't care to learn about their pet and make the big mistake of bathing them rather often thinking thay this make the smell better. The thing is that ferrets smell comes from the oil that coats their fur. So if you bath them often , their natural balance goes to hell and their body starts producing more oil as compensation, which ofc makes them smell worse. That's why is recommended to bath them once per month as maximum. If you take care of that basic rule, they don't smell so hard except when on heat. On heat they are truly stinkies
Sooo....they stink all the time. That's what ferret owners don't seem to get. The cleanest ferret in the world everyone else can smell from 100ft away. When you live with ferrets we can smell you 100ft away. If you think this doesn't apply to you then you're one of the delusional people being discussed. There is no such thing as ferret or ferret owner that doesn't stink to high heaven. That's ok. Personally I like the smell, the same way I like the smell of gasoline. It's still foul to 99% of people.
This is the sort of delusion I'm talking about. What do you mean they only smell in heat? Female ferrets are in heat march-september, so they smell for MONTHS ON END, even if you bathe them perfectly. I'm sorry, they just smell, even if you're the most vigilant owner.
The same is true for cat and dog owners, never been in a home without instantly being able to smell their pets before seeing them.
Nowhere near as bad as ferrets though. Ferrets have a special brand of stink. I'd compare it to a skunk.
Just think of what they smell like if they weren’t de-scented.
Don't they have literal stink glands? Like..they're supposed to be stinky unless you have it surgically removed
Those are two different things. They have their characteristic musky smell, but if you change and wash their stuff often enough it's not that bad. There is nothing else you can do against their natural smell, just like dogs have their own, which not all people are fond of. They also have scent glands, but have no real control over them (unlike their cousins, the european polecat). They usually poof when they get overly excited or scared, or sometimes for no reason at all during their sleep. That fucking stinks, and I say that as a ferret owner !
She kept them indoors? My neighbour had some in the garden and they were absolutely honking in the summer especially
Yep. 2 ferrets in a single bed flat in London. It was exactly as bad as you'd imagine.
Nope, I have both. They stink naturally. They produce a lot of musk.
Elon?!
>The females don't Yes, they do. All ferrets stink, even if you go nose blind to it. Even if you are super diligent with cage maintenance, there is still a distinct ferret aroma that those adorable tube rats generate.
No, they all stink. Even with their scent glands removed, they still stink. I had them growing up, and I can still smell them just writing this almost 30 years later.
A kid I went to school with had one and it did not smell I do not know its gender. But it would occasionally grab bags of weed and bring them under the bed.
Haha. What did it do with the weed?
Well duh their close cousin is the skunk.
They're not really that close. They're part of the same superfamily, but ferrets share close family with badgers, otters, wolverines, etc. They are Mustelidae. Skunks are Mephitidae. A skunk is as closely related to a ferret as a red panda is.
Thank you sir.
You stink, ape!
I'd be frantically googling "how not to appear indifferent to a baby ferret" for fear of getting it wrong if this happened to me
You have to be sincere though!
Take this as a tribute!
Hey food provider, is this one big enough to allow to keep living? Yeah? Wow, that's most of them!
“You see you see ok now I take back”
I heard that ferrets want to gather everyone they love together, so your ferret considers you her family when she brings you her babies
“With great power comes great responsibility”.. Spidey’s Uncle
His name is Uncle Ben and he invented rice.
Did you know originally Uncle Ben didn’t say that it was an omniscient narrator (and it was also ‘with great power there must also come-great responsibility’—-it was a warning more than a moral obligation) It was never attributed to Uncle Ben until 1987 25 years later Uncle Ben is never actually shown saying it in the comics until 2002-the same year Raimi released the first Spider-Man movie where he says it
I had hamsters as a kid and when they had babies as a 8 year old I didn’t know better and touched some of them. I came back to a bloodbath of snapped necks and eaten babies. A little traumatic for a child that was just trying to pet the babies.
So it’s the opposite for hamsters then?
"The gods have spoken and branded our children worthy sacrifices. May their blood keep the holy hamster wheel spinning!"
Yes because the hamster will think you want to eat them so it will do it instead because it doesn't want you to get the energy from them
Oh boy…
This happened to me once but with kittens
This happened to me once, but with the neighbour's kid.
Wait what
They look like Vienna sausages
Taste like them too
📸🤨
I remember as a teenager my girl Ferret gave birth in my lap and I was terrified because before then I had been told never touch baby animals because they'll be rejected by their mum's if they have my scent on them. So teen me was very surprised when my girl not only gave birth to all her babies in my lap, but also made me hold each one (and proceeded to make me her babies baby sitter when she had had enough snd needed her own time. She'd bring them to me, then go off and do whatever for an hour or so 😅🤣). Didn't understand what was happening, or why but I've cared for many pregnant ferrets over the years and this kept consistently happening. I only learnt in the last year or so that my girls did this because they saw me as their leader, which makes me so happy and honoured because all I want is to give them and their babies the best lives ever
I used to breed ferrets, mainly for hunting. I did have a few I would consider pets as well. At one stage I had about a dozen or more adults and about 20-30 kits. Delightful little creatures they are.
For hunting? I have never heard of that. Mind explaining further? Genuinely interested!
Ferrets are mustelids, a group that includes things like honey badgers and wolverines. They took the cute route in evolution, but the blood of a badass predator flows through their veins.
Breeding them you find this out quickly, if they get a good bite on a finger they go full lock-jaw on you. In most cases I could get them off but a couple times I got bitten real good, it took about 20 minutes to get one to let go, I tried prying with a stick but they bite harder, I had to use heat close to its nose to finally let me go. They don't fuck around that's for sure
You totally used your cigarette didnt you?
Yep, the ol fellas showed me how to do it. Never did it until I needed to that one time. I felt bad doing it, but 4 big holes in my finger became my main priority
From the video... "In Ferret Culture" 💀
I have a scar on my finger from a ferret. I have been bit by (baby) snapping turtles that didn't leave as bad of a mark as that fucking ferret.
40 years on, I can still find two scars from that incident. It was a bite right down to the finger bone.
And otters, the asshole water cat of the world.
Yep. I didn't mention them because people think they're adorable and not terrifying because they haven't seen jaguars run in terror from giant river otters. If the third biggest cat in the world, one who routinely jumps in the water to fight crocodilians bigger than itself on their own turf, is scared of you...
Fuckin eh. Well I have Saturday night youtube rabbit hole to go down.
Rabbit hunting, farmers would ask if we could clear the area of rabbits. Find a burrow, put nets on as many holes you can find then send it the ferrets. The rabbits get chased out and caught in the net. Job done. The biggest issue is if the ferret catches the rabbit in the burrow, I've had ferrets catch a bunny, have a snack then a snooze. I had a ferret that could sometimes force the snoozy ferret out and if not, you wait. Sometimes hours. Once we had to leave with a ferret still in the burrow, we came back about two weeks later and flushed him out with other ferrets but by then it had gone full feral.
Rabbit hole? Send in ferrets. Now a ferret hole? Send more ferrets!
Some of the less patient ol farts would pour petrol in the hole and try smoking the ferret out. Also, funny as fuck comment, I so needed a good chuckle.
If that doesn't work, we simply release wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes. They'll wipe out the ferrets.
Just don't send in the balloon fish after the needle snakes
As a bunny parent, I didn't know ferrets and rabbits are mortal enemies. TIL.
Bunnies and mustelids in general. A cousin of the ferret - the stoat - has such a ferocious war dance that it causes rabbits to be hypnotised, and easy prey. A stoat is about a quarter of the size of an average rabbit.
I hunted rabbits using ferrets too. They will also slaughter an entire chicken coop without hesitation.
Some ferrets definitely knew they had been in a scrap, they would be all scratched up from the rabbits' kicks.
“You don’t know what’s it’s like man, you left me here for days, I’ve gone feral!!!”
I didn't dare try and pick it up. My Dad tried, and it was jumping at him up to knee high, he ended up chucking a blanket over it and let someone else have it.
I mean, you left the little guy for *two weeks.* Poor thing.
We really did try everything, many hours of waiting. The ferret in question was really big and snoozy, none of the ferrets could nudge him out. Also, you would be amazed how quick they adapt. When we finally got him out 2 weeks later he was heaps bigger (fatter)
I hear you. Good to know he didn’t go hungry. :)
A colorful existence indeed.
Pretty sure it's where the term "ferreting out" came from. Send 'em in the hole, catch what they chase out.
[Ferret about to go on a hunt ](https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2766/4446762190_91b2a2d599.jpg)
Tunnel warfare expert, Sgt Percy Polecat
Ahh yes, Dar the beast master. They are quite adept at theft as well.
Podo and Kodo!
I did this for a long time too. In Australia. They do it in parts of England alongside lurcher hounds too. They're funny little bastards, one bit through my thumb nail once and would not let go, that was a pain I hope never to experience again. And yeah, they smell, it is what it is. Very efficient way to clear out a rabbit warren that's for sure.
Weasels have extremely strong bite forces for their size bc their long head has more room for jaw muscles to attach
Damn that’s a lot of pressure on the owner to show their sincerity
"Sorry i'll have a look a little later" "Aight no worries, I'll just kill this one off"
They're really cute but after owning one for awhile. They made me realize some people don't have a sense of smell. Like at all. This isnt shade but if you like the smell of balls then they are a good match for you. It is that kind of musk combined with a pissy understone and acrid ambience. As best I can desribe it to people with working nostrils.
It seems pretty logical to me. After all he owns the business.
I see what you did there. Accept my humble upvote.
I’m going full big brain here and putting 1+1 together. I’m assuming they mean a business is the ferret version of a murder of crows?
No way to know if this AI generated slop content is accurate at all. References to "ferret culture" make me think it isn't.
Yeah it's better to be cautious. But the comments are validating that at least the behaviour is common. If the explanation may be incorrect
It's such a funny expression, to refer to an animal's instincts as their "culture"
It 100% is not. We are doomed.
I had a soccer coach growing up that had a pet ferret that went with him everywhere. It was cute and affectionate but it smelled so bad. Like it just emitted musk on everything it came in contact with. His car smelled gross and it was even worse in the summer months
Sacrificing children to gods is nothing humanity hasn't done before or continues to do.
I feel like "In ferret culture..." could be a great way to start random sentences.
Always wanted ferret as companion... is it true they are stiiiinkky though?
I would love to care for a ferret but I dated a girl once who had two ferrets and they carried a very unique scent with them and I was wondering whether it really was the ferrets or poor maintenance/housekeeping from my date.
Ferret owner for 6 years here. They do have an animal musk about them, but in my experience it's not any worse than a dog's natural smell. (They do however sometimes fart which can be awful, for about 20 mins - it lingers) Most of the bad smells that I've heard complained about with ferrets is usually due to poor care: - change their bedding often. The strongest part of their smell comes from the oil on their skin. They looove to rub that off over their bedding, which makes the bedding smell! Imo best bedding is just fabric - easily washable and reusable - keep their litter box clean. These tiny carnivores love to poop, and their urine can smell pretty strong when wet - DON'T bathe them more than twice a year. Sounds counterproductive, but regular bathing dries their skin and causes their smelly skin oil to overproduce, making them stinker - feed them an appropriate diet. Any fish or fish oil makes them smell a lot worse. They are obligate carnivores though. You can get ferret specific kibbles, and they love a good raw egg, or some chopped kidney. - have some airflow in whatever room they spend most of their time to avoid the musk building/lingering Do those things, and they're amazing companion pets. They bond really hard to humans, even if you have more than one ferret (which I'd advise). They love hanging out with you and learning tricks. They're such smart and unique creaturs. Sometimes I take mine on walks around town on a leash!
My family had ferrets when I was a kid We were terrible ferret owners. Their favorite snacks were mixed berry cheerios 💀 They had free run of the house. They would sneak under the bed covers at night and bite our toes. I don't think my parents ever washed their bedding. And any time someone came into possession of a ferret they'd bring it to us, so every 1-2 years we'd have another new one. Sometimes I really miss having them, I think I could do better now
If they didn't smell so bad I would love to have some ferret friends
"in ferret culture"
Nice Marmot
And let's not forget, let's not forget dude, that uh...keeping an aquatic rodent...within the city...that ain't legal either.
Give us the money Lebowski!!!
I wish using AI robot voice for everything was not normalised.
“In Ferret culture” got me. Can’t even drink my coffee without bursting into laughter.
Humans do this when they bring their babies home from the hospital and present it to their dogs!
😂💀😂
> Ferret culture 🎩
When you are envious about the healthy/stable/caring living environments random animals on the internet have.
So mama ferrets do that because they need the leaders validation of the pinkies or else she will kill em.
She’s like “I made dis.”
Lol, I love this. My daughter literally told me about this two days ago.
"Here's the newborn, whatchu say boss? This one gets to live or should I put him to sleep with the fishes for ya?"
I can smell this video
Was this made by big ferret? Never before have I wanted a ferret more than now
Had friend who made ferret tracker vests for hunting. Put on ferret. Take shovel. ( this was about 50 years ago.) In the distant past people would break the canine teeth off ferrets to stop them killing underground.
That's pretty cool...thank you for sharing
Cute but pay attention when the ferrets present their new born.
If I understand correctly, the mothers bring their babes to the human so their babies will have the human’s scent. Otherwise the mom won’t claim them as her own. In the wild it would be the father, not a human.
I like ferrets as animal but how ppl keep them if they stink ?
how did her ferret get knocked up?
They are funny as fuck but horrible pets great working animals for hunters and environment rodent control.. They better to be kept outside in groups in a nice enclosure which is easy to clean and hard for them to escape from with loads of things for them to do with lots of regular changes to keep things interesting.
One of the most hyperactive animals in the world....and now there´s a flock of them....:S
Blessed your heart
My landlords going to be in for a shock.
Cute 😂
Some of this sounds like bullshit.
Is that a pine weasel?
Well no shit!? Thats wild
Awww