A ferret toy which was a big flop!
It got to the stage recently where hearing my little treasures all scratching furiously inside the chairs and sofa was like chewing on silver paper.
It really set my teeth on edge and I could see that Philip was getting more and more irritable by the noise.
What to do?
BING BONG!!
A brilliant idea popped into my head. I would prepare a dig box, full of aquarium gravel, so that the ferrets could all go in there and dig their way to China, if that’s what they wanted to do. I mean, I knew they liked digging as they are forever digging in their food dishes or in our dog’s food dish, scattering kibble everywhere!
Philip was skeptical but went off to CityFarmers, a pet & garden store near us, to get a large bag of gravel (anything to try and stop the ferrets from wrecking the lounge suite) and within half-an-hour I had one of the kids’ old toy box in the sitting room, and 25 kilos of gravel sitting in it.
We woke Seamus and Angus up and put them in the box.
They sniffed and snuffled, almost snorkling in it, and then they looked at me, almost as if to say “What’s this thing you put us in?” I bent over and started to dig in the gravel with my hands, making a lot of noise to get them interested.
Hah!
Angus bolted out of the box from fright, while Seamus looked at me curiously, as if I’d lost my senses.
I dug some more, then got Seamus’ front paws and started scratching them in the gravel, willing him to take over! Well, then Angus got brave and jumped in again so I scratched around and he started to scratch, then Seamus started to scratch and before long both the boys were digging furiously.
“Hallelujia!” I cried! “It works!!” I beamed at my clever ferrets.
It lasted all of 2 minutes, then they did a bit more snorkling around again and got bored so climbed out and wandered off.
Not to be spurned, I turned to the girls.
Kahlua wakes us up regularly every morning scratching at something inside the chest of drawers so I thought she was bound to enjoy digging in the gravel. I got her and Muis, and put them in the box. Because Kahlua is so small, I draped a towel over the edge of the box so that she could get in and out herself – see what a thoughtful ferret mom I am 
)
Like the boys, the girls looked at me as if I was crazy when I scrabbled around the gravel with my hands. It took a minute but then Kahlua started to dig and she seemed to be enjoying herself. Muis wasn’t impressed and jumped out of the box. Then Kahlua looked at me as if to say, “I’ve had enough. Please get me out of here!” She didn’t even try to use the towel.
By this time Kaos had appeared, wondering what all the noise was about so I put her in the box and was surprised to see her snuffling through the gravel and then giving it a good old dig. I reckon she did that for about a minute then she got bored and stood there, waiting for me to pick her up and put her on the floor.
Philip was watching and wryly remarked that at least they didn’t use the dig box as a litter box.
Angus wondering why on earth I put him in the box
Couldn’t get out of there fast enough!
So there you go. A big, fat waste of money …. they haven’t even SNIFFED around the box since then so I’m now wondering what I can do with 25kg of gravel…..!
So much for my bright idea!
Other articles you might like;
- My gorgeous Angus is at the Rainbow Bridge :’(
- The Ferret Squad
- Hot weather and ferrets
- Happy New Year to All My Ferret Friends :)
- Merry Christmas to all ferret owners out there :)
- Naughty ferrets or complacent ferret owners?
- Dig box for ferrets
- Do ferrets get moody?
- Ferrets and a new drug called EBC-46
- I hope my ferret Mojo doesn’t have adrenal problems!
Filed under: Ferrets as Pets
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gravel sounds like it would be awful hard on their toes. I used a mixture of play sand and organic soil and my guys LOVED it. Every once in a while I would throw in some grass or flowers or other clippings and make it ‘new’ again.
Also, if you use real dirt, it makes for a natural bath. After I created that play box, I started only giving a bath once a year in the stinky summer.
Great idea, and cheap too!
Thanks for that … I will find a big box and try it out. At least it will be easier to move if they don’t play in it than my toy box
nice try nona
you could always plant a garden with plastic flowers. they would love that haahaaa!
There’s no accounting for ferret’s.
IT may grow on them, and you put
them in there. that takes the fun out of it for them. It’s always more fun when kids think thier getting away with something or being sneaky.
here’s what i do.
i call it the “sun day special”
one big box 1 or 2 holes on each side 5″ to 6″ inches from the bottom, you don’t want it to easy for them to get into.
1 or 2 holes on top, Sunday paper, old med bills half shredded, half waded up about 4 layers. one bag of bells thrown in for fun. put it
down walk away.
my ferrets love this. quick simple
and cheap. you can even put your
gravel there for added texture just seal up the bottom real good.