Ferret attack

[Quail_Antwerp]

I have pet ferrets, but they have never escaped. My friends think I am nuts having two animals, one being predator to the other. I do not let my ferrets out unless I can closely supervise, not just as a safety precaution to my ferrets, but to my chickens as well. When we had peeps and turkey poults in the house, my ferrets were never out of their cage.

Some people keep ferrets outdoors in rabbit cages. Some people have been known to tire of them and instead of rehoming them, turn them loose thinking they can survive in the wild. Domestic ferrets really cannot survive for long on their own in the outdoors.

Again, I am really sorry that you lost your chickens to a ferret attack.

 

[horsejody]

It just proves that irresponsible pet owners don't just have dogs.

 

[Jyrrah]

They aren't wild here!! This must have been a pet that escaped. We had a loss a couple of years ago that we thought was down to a polecat. 7 chickens and my beautiful duck and drake killed, only one duck survived. We learned later that a guy down the road had 'lost' his ferret at that time, thankfully they moved away as the ferret was always disappearing. What does it take to make a cage ferret proof??
I am really sorry to hear about your loss - you need to try and trap the ferret.

It takes a lot to make a cage and a house ferret proof. If you've got an opening large enough for the head to fit through the body will follow. Ferrets are very intelligent animals and can manipulate cage doors open in a heartbeat. To give you an idea, when we had our house built I made sure no door had a crack larger than half an inch and made sure our grates to the ventilation system were screwed in. Also got the heavy duty window screens so they couldn't claw out. I've never let them outside of the cage without supervision but better safe than sorry. Out of curiosity are you sure it's a domesticated ferret and not the European Polecat? Or a hybrid of the two? They look nearly identical to a sable ferret. Only reason I ask is it's much easier to trap a domesticated ferret than a polecat or a hybrid. If it's a pet some cat food could probably lure it into a trap.​

 

[Joy1]

Thankyou so much for your support everyone .The ferret looked like an escaped pet to me.The one remaining poland is staying indoors with me tonight but it is sad to hear him chirping for his brothers and sisters. .

 

[banter]

I have owned nine ferrets over the years, and once again I think it depends on their breeding. I have owned parrots and cage birds with them the whole time, with no problems at all. They are NEVER left unsupervised by choice. They have got out on occasion, which is not fun. They can get into walls etc. especially if you have an old house, like me. I would no sooner leave them alone with chickens as I would a cat or dog with chickens. They do however, kill mice and snakes, which can be a plus. The USA bred ferrets are pretty docile and almost helpless if they escape. The ferrets in Great Britain are bred more independent if I have read correctly.

 

[banter]

I just had a thought! Ferrets will come to check out squeaking. If you squeak a squeaky toy
for a whlie he might show himself and you can nab him! Sorry for your loss!

 

[chick4chicks]

I am so sorry for the loss of your chickens. I hope you can get some friends for your lone chicken.

 

[Lea71]

Sorry for your loss....those ferrets are brutal little hunters. That is probably why they are illegal here in CA. Although the two ferrets that we use to have came from a breeder already spayed/neutered (they're legal in Nevada).

Both of the ferrets we owned escaped the house and we never saw them again....I didn't have the heart to leave them in their cages all the time...I know...bad owner. They are vicious little killers though, before Miller escaped he killed both of our iguanas, pulled their heads through their cage and ate both of their heads...what a bloody mess! I'm glad I got over my phase of reptiles and unusual pets....it was a lot of maintainence.

I hope you catch that little bugger...they like shiny things.

 

[Jyrrah]

Quote:
Just prefacing this so everyone knows how I'm saying this. Not being mean, angry, ect. Just explaining a very common misconception. Hate not being able to get a tone across through text. Oh and WARNING: Giant wall of text below.

Ferrets are illegal in California originally because they were mistakenly put on the prohibited wildlife list when the Department of Fish and Games was first formed. This happened in several states and they have since rectified the error. The reason the law still stands in California is the Sierra Club, Audubon and other organizations pump money into the DF&G to block bills to legalize them. The reasons the DF&G have given have been disproven repeatedly. At first it was there isn't a rabies shot for them. They were sued by the makers of Imrab and had to withdraw that excuse. Then it was distemper vaccination. That had to be removed from the list because there is a ferret distemper shot which has proven to be effective. The two most popular excuses are "vicious" and can go feral at the drop of a hat. For the first excuse I'll simply explain that the worst year of ferret attacks on humans topped out at 12. Compare that to any other domestic animal kept in the average american household. According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control, a ferret is thousands of times less likely to bite than a dog is. As far as your iguanas go I'm sorry they died. My youngest sister had an iguana who died the same way when our cat figured out how to get into the terranium. We never did find the head. We're just happy we found the body before she did.

The second excuse really amuses me. There are no populations of feral ferrets in the United States. When a ferret escapes from a house they usually end up dead unless someone finds them. The only current feral ferret population is in New Zealand where they were brought in to control the rabbit population. These ferrets were trained to live in the wild. This wouldn't work in the U.S. because we have predators built to kill members of the weasel family. New Zealand lacks the natural predators so this allowed for the population to build up. Even without predators and an ample food supply the majority died. All ferrets you see in pet stores are already descented and neutered/spayed. For a ferret to create a population you'd need two unaltered ferrets to escape from a breeder since your average pet owner would not have access to them. They must then find a food source and/or learn to hunt. Then they have to evade predators long enough to find each other and breed. Here's the catch. An unaltered female must be bred (or given a hormone shot) or she will not come out of heat and die. This leaves you with an exceptionally small window that a feral ferret population could ever get started without direct human intervention. There have been three states since DF&G has organized that have claimed feral ferret populations. Alaska found a total of three ferrets. New Mexico released some to control rabbits in the 80's. That population has died. Washington State had some on Camano Island that were released to hunt rabbits. That population has also died.

To be honest I've always been slightly amused by the DF&G stance on ferrets in California. I was even more amused to discover one of the main financial supporters was the Audubon Society. Makes me wonder why they care more about the possibility of feral ferrets and less about the reality of feral cats.

 

[whitecra]

Quote:
I may be mistaken, but I think that ferrets and European polecats are closely related. Polecats are wild, and ferrets are their domesticated cousins. However, it is common for people to refer to them all as ferrets. I know that here we have wild ferrets, the black footed ferret. I know we have them locally because one of my barn cats had a dead baby one once.

Polecats are like skunks. Polecats have 2 white stripes where skunks only have 1.
Chris