We have had ferrets for years, always kept in a large caged play tower only to be taken out for loving on, caring and cage cleaning. They seemed to be happy little guys. My daughter has 2 ferrets in her home, which roam the home whenever she is there. They are only caged when she leaves the house. They are liter trained and descented, but have total run of the house. Is this safe for the ferrets, if given the chance wouldn't they leave the home if only to explore?
I have actually seen ads on Craigslist for lost ferrets and often wondered HOW a ferret can go missing but your post actually answered my question LOL They are definitely sneaky little guys and can get out of many situations. Our ferrets (we don't have any right now) have always had full run of the house, except bedrooms, for a minimum of 2 hours a day and often longer. The reasoning for me was that I had other pets in the house and I was trying to adopt out these poor little guys, a well socialized ferret is much easier to adopt out and mine always played with the dogs. The only exception to that was when I had a large white one and the largest sable and him would wrestle pretty hard...well the sable decided that Kotton looked like his white ferret brother and tried to wrestle...Kotton became terrified (for obvious reasons) so that ferret was restricted to two rooms away from Kotton.
I don't have any ferret myself, but one of my friends do. He had a pair of caged ferrets. I was wondering why they require cages all these years. He told me once he let them get loose in the house, one of them got into the wall and took him forever to get it out. I don't think they are little submissive pets as you might think they are. If they have the chance, they will get out of the house.
Those litter trained ferrets must have been trained during very young age. If yours aren't that young any more, it will be hard to do the same.
Submissive pets absolutely not! Hers will follow some direction and listen really well. They are the offspring of another set of ferrets we had, who have since passed on. She has had them since birth and was the first human contact they had. She's done a great job with them, and hates to cage them which is why I was concerned. I wouldn't want the little guys our prowling the neighborhood and maybe getting injured.
The way we got ours used to being out and about was by starting small, in a room that is secure...they will get in the SMALLEST of spots and have even have been known to squeeze UNDER a door (we had to block off the bottoms lol), get behind appliances, and one even fell in the washer LOL. We started in the bathroom since that is usually the most secure room...some start in a hallway if it is long and that is what we added first...Bathroom only, then bathroom and hall, etc. As long as she knows she has even the littlest of spots blocked I don't see why not.
I don't think my daughter has blocked off all the exit points in her home. I'll have to check. I know the doors aren't bloccked to keep them from going under. Her front and back door are blocked, but all the other doors aren't. I'm sure if they get in the laundry room, they could find a way out if they wanted. I'll pass on the tips, even though I seem more worried than she is about a escape attempt.
If they had the chance to go outside, sure, they'd probably head out. The same applies to cats or dogs, though, doesn't it? If the door is left open, many of them would try to explore anyway. I don't think that's enough of a reason to not let them roam around the house, though.
If they have the chance, they will get out of the house. 