How to Care for Ferrets - Pairing up ferrets

Hi there! I’m Fran Freedman from Morning Starr Animal Sanctuary, and I’m here to tell you about pairing up ferrets on behalf of expertvillage.com. In this cage, we have Zeek and Milo, Selma and Louise, and Sailor. There is also Banded but he’s sleeping. The reason that we can keep these males together, first of all most of them came in in pairs. But the reason that they can stay together is because they are all spayed and neutered. Intact males usually will fight with other males. Plus, they give off a horrible odor, which I don’t think anybody would really want to live with. So, definitely if you find a ferret and you’re not sure if it’s intact of not, definitely you go to the vet and check that out right away. Otherwise, you will not be able to pair them up. The females have to be spayed or they come down with aplastic anemia, not a 100% of them, but a large enough majority that it is severe and results in death. This is Floydy, Pink Floyd, and this White Girl who is eating, they’re a pair. Actually, this Sassy, who just lost her pair, so she’s in here with these guys so that she can still have friends. As you can see, she’s losing hair. She’s very stressed over the loss. Ferrets do get very stressed when they lose their pair. They do bond and sometimes that’s what happens, but she’s in there with these guys. She likes them and they all play together. She’s also quite elderly, so that’s another reason why she’s not taking the stress really well. She’s nearly 5 years old, which is defiantly a senior for ferrets. Some ferrets can not be paired. We have 2 ferrets here out of almost 50, so it is very rare. If you go slow, there is really no reason why ferrets can’t be paired. But if you do have a ferret like the 2 we have here, they do get very stressed and they can not take the stress of being paired. We tried switching blankets, we’ve tried putting them in for short periods of time, and the ferret gets so stressed that they can actually develop ulcers so you don’t want to push it. If your ferret is a lonely ferret and needs a friend, does not get along with other ferrets, you might just be it’s only friend.