Need some advice, in a hurry!

[jeepinsj]

Hello,

my girlfriend and I have a five or six month old male ferret. Hes is growing fast and has been healthy. My question however is to his activities. We give him plenty "out-of-cage" time and when he is in his cage it is a large one with toys so he can runa round and play in there as well. However, he is very hyper, bouncing of the walls hyper. He also will not deficate in the corner of hsi cage that the litter box is in, he will go to the correct floor of the cage but do his business in all the corners. So my question is will he settle down as he gets older and begin to train easier or what should we do? He is so hyper and stubborn that my girlfriend is becomming aggitated with him because she has always seen calm and trained ferrets. Waht can be said and done? t

thank you
scott

[JuliusSqueezer]

There is no end to a ferret's energy. "Hyper" is a horrible understatement lol

You don't get to choose where the litterbox goes. The ferret picks a corner and then you put the box there after you clean up the mess. If he's using multiple corners, I would use multiple litter boxes for now but eventually he will find a favorite corner and stick with it.

[buck2003]

Yeah I've had lots of em..my wife even walked them on a harness outside!! (didnt go well with the neighbours) In my experience with em I found that the females (Gills) were much more chilled out than the boys (Hobbs) saying that like kids they love to play and eat! Like JS said there is no end to there energy, and when they do tire they quickly recover. I used to bath mine regular (esp the males) and while drying them in a towel it was funny, yet hard to do! After they would bounce everywhere. I think once they have explored everywhere and gotten a little older they do seem to chill out a little and come to you to be played with instead of looking for trouble lol. All mine have litter trained but again like JS said I had to put the littler where they poo, not where I want em to. One thing that use to drive my wife mad was them stealing things from around the house and hiding them under the sofa or some place lol. Buck

[lethargiic]

a friend of mine had a ferret name rizzo.. and he would steal lighters, cigarettes, pens n pencils and hide em under the couch...just a typical hyper lil monster.. til u take his squeeky toy and hid it on him...then it got to be no more mister nice ferret..lol

[Eraser]

Jeep,

in response to the not pooping in the litter box... if you can switch to the corner where he is going.. but then put towels or a blanket on that floor.. Ferrets (even though are said to be a bit smelly..I DISAGREE) are clean animals..they will not poop where they sleep.. I do this with my boys.. and Ive never had a problem!! Good luck to ya... if you need more advice on things.. i would recomment Ferrets for dummies hand book... and not that this site has nothing to offer.. i love RTB.. you can try for more ferret advice at www.ferretuniverse.com this is a great site.. lots of people there that are cool and friendly and free flowing with the advice...

Have fun with your little guy.. and yes.. the are bundles of energy.. also in the future you may want to consider a playmate for your fuzzy... two are just a easy to keep as one is.. that way he's not so lonely when he's in his cage.. plus its great to watch the ferts wrestle with each other!! and they giggle more too!! if you have any more Q's you can message me.. or talk to Ghroller (regular here) he's got 4 ferts!!!