Scoop Dreams in a Nutshell- How to Litter Train Your Ferret

Ferret Care 1 Response »
Aug 232011
How to Litter Train Your Ferret

"I've fixed these wires...what can I get into next?"

  1. put the litter box next to where they sleep
  2. you may have to control where they sleep so the litter box can be nearby
  3. the first thing you do when you get a clean new litter box is to put a little ferret poop in the back corner
  4. Simply removing chunks from scoopable litter isn’t enough for ferrets’ fine sense of smell. get pellet litter
  5. even then, you’ll still have to wash the box every so often and get totally new litter…then repeat step #3
  6. put newspaper in front of the box because they like to rub their butts on the floor when they come out
  7. also, if the box gets full, they’ll have a tendency to go in front of the box so again, a newspaper “apron” is good
  8. if there are large areas of your house where the ferrets can run free, you’ll either have to cordon off those areas when you’re not there, or have a litter box there too, since ferrets will only travel a certain distance to a box
  9. ferrets don’t want to go to the bathroom where they sleep or where they eat, so by occasionally putting an extra water bowl or some bedding from where they sleep in off-limits areas, this will deter them from going in those parts of your house
  10. having pet ferrets run all around the house may not be for everyone, but you’ll have happier, well-adjusted ferrets and they will be extremely entertaining to watch
Posted by cat at 5:40 pm Tagged with: , , , ,

Scoop Dreams IV- Where to Put your Ferret’s Litter Box

Ferret Care No Responses »
Aug 062011
Pig Communicating

Pig Communicating - "Clean the box"

Now we know that ferrets like clean litter boxes and we also know what type of litter works best for their fastidiousness.  There’s one more element to the trickery that goes on when it comes to manipulating your ferret into using the box every time.  And that’s placement.

Ferrets, like cats, sleep most of the day.  They exist at either end of the energy spectrum: 100% manic panic or sleeping and limp.  Since we work out of our home, we get to observe ferret behavior very closely and I’ve noticed that  our Pig wakes up several times a day and scouts about for treats or plastic bags.  Hippie, on the other hand, is a very heavy sleeper and doesn’t wake up very often…you wouldn’t even think an animal would sleep that soundly, given that it’s probably not a good survival skill in the wild.  And Bun well, he’s in between Pig and Hippie on the sleeping scale, waking up if I whistle for a few minutes  but not really a light sleeper.    That means, between the three of them, there always seems to be a ferret waking up and checking their spots for treats or fresh water or in Pig’s case, she’s hoping perhaps we’ve dropped a tasty forbidden plastic bag for her to chew on.

But no matter what type of ferrets you have, light sleeper, heavy snoring obese albino ferret, or perfect Bun, they will all do this: upon waking, they will have urgent need to use the litter box.  That means, with our three guys we have many trips to the litter box.

So, what do we do…that’s right, put the litter box next to where they sleep.  Make it easy for them as they stumble out of bed and they’ll cooperate by using the box.

Now, I just can’t help inserting another story of how perfect Bun is.  As you can imagine, the litter box that gets used the most is the one next to where the ferret sleep the most.  Consequently, it’s the dirtiest…no matter how much we clean it and scoop it.  Bun will wake up and although the much-used litter box is two feet away, he’ll make haste to the bathroom, where there’s another litter box, only it’s much cleaner.  Again: fastidiousness.

Pig will just run out the living room and go in the corner if she’s not satisfied with the cleanliness of the nearby litter boxes.  Pig is very rebellious but at least she’s letting us know it’s time to clean the litter box again.

Posted by cat at 4:29 pm Tagged with: , , , , ,

Cozy N Fresh Pellet Litter on Sale This Week

Cozy N Fresh Pellet Litter on Sale This Week Ferret News No Responses »
Aug 022011


PlanetWise Cozy N Fresh Pellet Pet Litter is on sale this week at Ferret.com. I think the sale ends August 8.
PlanetWise Cozy N Fresh Pellet Pet Litter

Posted by cat at 2:30 pm

Scoop Dreams III -Best Ferret Litter

Ferret Care 1 Response »
Jul 302011

PlanetWise Cozy N Fresh Pellet Pet LitterWell, we now know from previous posts that ferrets use the litter box, and why.  To win the game and always have a clean litter box area, to achieve your Scoop Dreams, the idea is to stay ahead of the game and keep the litter box smelling nice.  To do that, you scoop out the litter of course. 

What kind of training guide is this, anyway? you might be asking.  Of course you would scoop the litter… Well, litter scooping is more complex than you might think.  If your ferrets are having accidents, the problem may not lie in your scooping technique.  The problem often lies in what’s left behind after you diligently scoop the litter. Even when you scoop religiously, you’re still sifting smelly dust into the box after you get the chunks out.  In other words, the chunks you scoop out aren’t the only cause of bad odors.  Over time, you have sifted plenty of smelly dust back into the box, even if it looks perfectly chunk-free to the human eye.

So, like the Kitten Chow I’d been feeding my ferrets for nine years, the Arm & Hammer scoopable kitty litter was not the best thing for ferrets.  Yes, it allowed me to easily remove chunks from the box.  But simply removing chunks isn’t enough for ferrets’ fine sense of smell.  They eventually found cleaner bathroom “tunnels” in which to go and accidents were happening left and right. 

I was also looking for sources of my boyfriends’ allergies, and thought maybe the dust from the litter was making him sneeze.  I researched and found something called pellet litter.  It’s made of pine pellets and has something called activated wood carbon, but more importantly it absorbs odors much better than clay litter. Get this: we actually have fewer “accidents” now.  The hit rate on ferrets using the box is much higher, and all around there’s less work to do because we’re not waking up to improperly placed poops every morning.  Life is so much better when you’re not a slave to your pets. 


The brand I got was PlanetWise Cozy N Fresh Pellet Pet Litter, which you can get on Ferret.com.

Posted by cat at 4:36 pm Tagged with: , , , , ,

Scoop Dreams II-How to Litter Train Your Ferret

Ferret Care No Responses »
Jul 232011
Bun in the dirt

What Not to Do- Bun is burying his face in clean dirt. You don't want this for a litter box.

So, last post was about how ferrets are better than dogs when it comes to ease of care.   Ferrets come with instincts that make them want to use a litter box, and how wonderful that is for ferret owners.  Their ancestors used tunnels in the wild and we can substitute litter boxes for tunnels and trick them into being house trained.

Now, fast forward to the present, when most US ferrets are domesticated and we have ferrets that back up into a litter box, just as if it were a tunnel.  Each little pile is placed slightly forward of the last one, until the box seems dirty and they stop using it.  That’s when they start going in wrong places or simply ignore the boundaries of the box, keep moving forward and go in front of the box.

And how do ferrets tell the box is full?  Well in the case of my ferrets we have Bun, who actually takes a little survey of the box before he backs in.   He sniffs all around, planning where he’s going to place his feet.  He then gingerly tip-toes in and sometimes even backsteps over previous piles to find a clean spot.   I know…he’s very special because he’s got advanced litter box skills.  Macchi had them too, but that’s another ferret and another time.

The first thing you do when you get a clean new litter box is to put a little ferret poop in the back corner.  That tells the ferret it’s already been decided before he got there:  this will be the “bathroom tunnel”.  He will think he just missed the New Tunnel Designation meeting, and go with it.   He’ll key into his pre-determined parameters and back into the corner as far as he feels it’s safely clean, and do his business.  That’s all it takes to litter train your ferret because he comes with that instinct.  Unless you’re very unlucky and you get get a real a&%hole ferret who just won’t cooperate.

If you don’t put the initial poop in the new litter box, your ferret will think it’s a box of play dirt, like the one in the picture.  That’s Bun in an actual box of play dirt.  See the video here.

What happens when your ferret thinks the tunnel is full?  He’ll appoint himself New Tunnel Finder and designate a new bathroom “tunnel” quickly.  Sometimes there is no time for a meeting with the other ferrets…he’s got urgent business.

And that’s where your miseries begin.  The new bathroom spot might simply be a continuation of the old…he’ll go right in front of the litter box.  That’s not good but it’s better than a hidden new spot you don’t discover for days.  Chances are, it’ll be in a corner somewhere… by the time you discover the new spot it might just be a field of dried up little pellets and you’ll have to scrape them off the floor with a putty knife.  Nice.  Landlords especially love this.

So now you know how to set up a ferret litter box.  You also know why perhaps is the ferret suddenly not using the litter box (it smells bad) and how he’ll try and solve the problem himself (designate a new spot and use that until it too smells bad).  Next up, how to win this game of poop tricks.

Posted by cat at 5:19 pm Tagged with: , , , , , ,
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