Please adopt our furries

If you are already used to ferrets or looking to buy ferrets, you may want to adopt Lilo & Stitch. Please be aware of ferret habits, houseproofing concepts, and have a small area of your home ready for them to explore. There must be no loose plugs or tempting rubber objects they may chew. Wires should be covered if possible, or at least keep an eye on the ferrets who may chew wires. They will get into everything. They're excellent climbers, scuttling behind a dresser along the wall up to the top of the dresser, climbing to the top of the couch. Getting under the china closet from the back. They are tunnelers and mousers by instinct -- so they will look for holes and thoroughly explore them. If you have plants, they'll try to make holes of their own.

With that mentioned, they're quiet, playful, friendly. They don't like being pet like dogs or cats -- they really want to play. They take the opportunity when held to scope out the new view and look for more things they want to explore, including you.

Reasons

I moved from a much larger victorian in Unionville to a more expensive much smaller ranch in Middletown. We have a room that is the combined living room/guest room/ferret play room. Now due to financial issues it has to become a roommate's room. The house is packed, and the ferrets need a good place to run around. We're moving our living room into the basement which leaks and has mold -- it's a bad situation for guests or watching a movie, and the basement would be ABSOLUTELY! inappropriate for the ferrets' cage because it would likely be unhealthy for them. I've run out of places that anything can go, and there's no room for the ferret's to play.

I want to find the ferrets a good loving family home where they have room to play. When you see them play, you'll know why this situation breaks my heart. Every day they rush out of bed to see me asking if it's time for play. They need exercise and fun.

the ferrets

Lilo and Stitch are a rambunctious and curious duo. I found them up for adoption when their previous owners brought them into the Middletown Petco. The owners said they were 17 months old, and that was April 2005, so now they're almost 3 years old.

Stitch is male, larger than Lilo, and very gentle with humans when handled. Stitch loves to hoard stuffed animals, and for a while had a toy stuffed snake that he loved to beat up on. He only plays rough with Lilo, cats, stuffies and toes. You definitely need to watch your toes with Stitch -- he's a shoe-only or barefoot type of ferret. No socks! All your sock orphans would have a good home with Stitch.

Lilo, the smaller female with a darker mask, is frisky with humans. She likes to goad people, cats and ferrets into playing with her. You can tousle her and she'll nibble on you. She might nip at your toes, but she's much more gentle than Stitch.

Socks make a good toy for this duo -- like a string with a cat. They'll attack and play tug-of-war with a sock you tease them with.

They get along fine with cats who don't hurt them. Once one of our cats got fed up with them and I got to hear a ferret scream. You don't want that! If you have a young playful cat, the ferrets will love to get "down & dirty" -- but Stitch can play really rough with a cat, so the cat might not win. Lilo is unrelenting in egging others on to play/fight with her, she's a big tease. They also gang up on cats during play. They get along terrific with three of the four cats we had while they have been in our house -- only one cat hurt them and they now give her wide berth and she pretty much ignores them. Two of the cats they got along with fine are real mousers -- the cats know that ferrets are not food, and in fact the ferret diet is very similar to a cat diet (but don't feed them catfood!).

I have no idea about dogs, but I was told by their former owners that they don't really like dogs. When they see a dog, they think they're lunch.

Ferrets are quiet. Except when they're itchy -- they jump out of bed and make thumping noises, or when they're drinking at the bottle. They make quiet little grunting noises when playing or exerting themselves. When in real pain, they can be loud and piercing but that shouldn't happen!

Equipment

The former owners of Lilo and Stitch didn't send them with any equipment or toys :( I also didn't find out what food they liked, who their doctor was, etc. So I've learned what they like, and bought a lot of stuff for them. It's all going with them, with the exception of a nail clipper and pet carrier.

You'll need to bring a pet carrier. They're small enough to easily share a medium sized cat carrier.

Lilo & Stitch come with a cage -- big enough for living, not big enough for playing! It would be ideal to get them a larger cage, but it's definitely room enough for two ferrets who get out-of-cage playtime around the house. If you don't want to dissemble the cage, make sure that your car can fit both the ferret carrier and cage -- the supplies can go in the trunk. The cage has fit in the backseat of a car before. The cage measures 32" wide, 20" deep, 30" high.

They also come with a play-area gate. It's a 6-sided fencing enclosure. You can use it outside or inside. There's no floor for the play area, but it's good if you need to keep them in one limited spot for a while for some reason (like tossing in a pile of towels for them to dry off in after a bath), or if you really want to bring them outside. If you bring the ferrets outside there's a few issues -- parasites like fleas, ticks, and holes in the ground. Make sure there's no way for the ferret to escape through a hole in the ground, and make sure they're not left unsupervised, or they may make their own hole.

They come with toys, food, vitamin supplements & treats. I think their brush is in the box. They have 3 hammocks -- two freshly washed warm ones, one nylon cooler one for the summer that they're still using -- that can be swapped in and out of the cage for cleaning.

I'm giving up an almost full bag of cage bottom bedding as well.

There's a litter pan or two, but I was never able to get Lilo and Stitch to be good about using them. :/

I'm also giving away my ferret care book, in case the people who adopt them don't know very much about ferrets.

Diet

Try not to change a ferret's diet. Ferrets have a cat-food like food that they should be able to freely feed from. Once a day they can have some supplements -- I give them no more than a half raisin a day, and give them up to a teaspoon of the other nuggets in their treat can. Be careful with sweets, as ferrets can get diabetes.

They have 2 liquid supplements, both of which they're crazy about. One is Ferretone -- this can be a grooming aid or they can lick it up out of your palm, and can be given daily. The other is a gel that helps clear hairballs and obstructions. When they start shedding, start giving them the hairball supplement every day or two. Or if you notice that anyone is having elimination issues. Ferrets don't spit out hairballs, so they need help!

Medical

The ferrets saw a doctor and got their shots last April when we got them. Medical records and their doctor's information will be given along with them. They should have an annual checkup, and recommended shots. They got their canine distemper at their annual last year. They went to Goosepond Animal Hospital in Monroe, and their doctor was terrific.

Grooming

Ferrets can use their toes clipped. Brushing is a good idea now and then. The rest is in the book.

If you're mixing the ferrets with outdoor animals, fleas and ticks can get on the ferrets. I found out that the ferrets and fleas don't mix. Stitch is allergic -- he itches a LOT when he has fleas, and will scratch himself raw. If you have outdoor pets &/or fleas, some natural flea care will help a lot. I put diatomaceous earth in the floor bedding of the cage, and sprinkled some in the hammock the ferrets sleep in. I sprinkled the area they run around in (and the rest of the house) with a mixture of 50/50 diatomaceous earth and borax. That took care of the infestation and only needs reapplication after 3 weeks the first time, then perhaps every 6 months thereafter....

Keep the ferret's cage elevated above the ground. If you like we have a desk that works well with the cage -- you can also have the desk if you need it.

When trying to clip a squirmy ferret's toenails, put a few drops of ferretone on their belly. They'll be so busy licking it off that they won't notice you trimming their nails. Be careful, though, because like cats they have nerves and blood vessels in their nails. Cut carefully. The book explains more.

Questions

I'm available for questions before and after adoption. Please ask anything you want. I'll be honest with you because I don't want these family members to be hurt or poorly taken care of. Or even to have to move to another house again in the near future. If there's anything I forgot to give you, I'll hand it over if I have it. I'm not looking to keep any ferret stuff after this adoption, and I want the transition to be as easy as possible for everyone involved.

Costs

Having both ferrets looked at by the doctor wasn't terribly expensive -- they went on the same visit, and were taken care of in tandem. I'm sure it was under $200, but I'll hand over the bills.

In all, though, the ferrets cost me nothing in themselves (young ferrets are about $100+ at the pet store each), the cage was another $100, there's food, supplements, toys, etc. In all, the cost of getting them checked out at the doctor is much less than getting new ferrets from a store and having to buy everything AND take them to the doctor.

A bag of food for the ferrets is about $20 and lasts about a month. They come with a full bag and an open bag of food. Their supplements last a pretty long time. I use bedding in the cage. How often you'll need to buy it depends on how often you clean their cage -- I put about 1"-2" of bedding in the cage after cleaning it. Between thorough cage cleanings I just scoop out the soiled litter and scoot the older litter into the corners they use for elimination. Then I add fresh bedding to the other areas.