Dances with ferrets

These pages are dedicated to my first 3 ferrets- Jilly, Angel and Jack... Through them I got to know ferrets and they changed my life and enriched it in many ways which I am very greatful for. In 2004 I then became interested in skunks because I thought they were like big ferrets and they turned out to be a great addition, bringing a lot of happiness and laughter, just like the ferrets.

Introduction

This is myself, Ulrike, proud parent of:

Ferrets Honey, Snoopy, Peanut, Franklin, Skippy and Tigger
Skunks Blossom & Sparky
Cats Stripey, Boston, Pontus & Blob
Dogs Poppy & Logan
Rabbits Bunny & Binky

Missing
Ferrets Angel, Hope, Igor, Barney, Tom, Spike, Jilly, Jack, Mason, Bella, Baby, Hobo, Fox, Tara, Reno, Dana, Jasmine, Riley, Rose, Willow, Jade, Gremlin, Spike II, Daisy, Bobby, Nipper, Piper, Wesley, Ruby, Kobi, Phoebe, Leo, Charlie, Jake & Squirt
Skunks Tyler & Peppy
Cats Kia, Snowy & Squeaky
Dog Millie
Rabbit Bailey
Gone but never forgotten
:*-(

"I hope to make people realize how totally helpless animals are, how dependent on us, trusting as a child must that we will be kind and take care of their needs. They are an obligation put on us, a responsibility we have no right to neglect, nor to violate by cruelty."
~James Herriot, English Veterinarian and Author~

These pages are about my ferrets (and other animals). Scroll down to the 2 buttons towards the end of the page to get to the rest of my web pages. They are an honest account and also include mistakes I've made. Maybe they'll help other people avoid those mistakes and make people realize that they should think hard before making any decisions. One decision that I made without thinking long enough was to give my very first ferret Baby away. If I had thought it over properly I wouldn't have given her away. That's what I think now anyway.

Not counting Baby, I have been owned by ferrets since May 1995. My first ferret (not counting the first Baby) was an unwanted jill I rescued- I named her Jilly. I bred her and kept 2 of her 9 babies that she gave birth to in June '95: Angel & Jack. That was it for a while until ferret math struck me in May '97. At the end of May, an unwanted ferret called "Mr Puss" joined the family- he was renamed Igor. And in June 1997, 2 RSPCA rescues followed: Bella & Tom. Since then I was struck by ferret math a few more times and I also rescued many ferrets. By the way, all my ferrets have been neutered, something a responsible ferret owner should do.

For all who are unfamiliar with the concept of ferret math, it's easy to explain. You get one ferret and think "Oh, another won't hurt." So you get a second and see how much fun it is to watch the 2 ferrets play with each other. So you think a third ferret will add even more fun. And soon the little rascals will have stolen your heart and you will go on thinking that maybe you should add another one! And it's true, the bigger the group the more fun you and the little fuzzies will have. And there is one important formula regarding ferret math: once you had n ferrets, any number of ferrets < n doesn't seem enough. ;-)

Tip: when you hold your cursor over the pictures, you'll see who is on it.

Raw Feeding

Since October 2000 I have been feeding the ferrets raw meat and bones, I mince and chunk whole chickens and feed them to the ferrets. Of course they also get other meats but chicken is their staple diet. Read more about it here.

West Wales Ferret Welfare

I used to do a bit of rescue work and help people with ferrets and called myself West Wales Ferret Welfare because that is where I am situated. To read more about WWFW, scroll down to the 2 links below and click on the right one.

Important West Wales Ferret Welfare update

Please don't ask me to help with re-homing ferrets because I can't take in any more rescues. At the moment I have ferrets, skunks, rabbits, *4* cats (you get the picture) and barely have any time for myself and life is not running smoothly for me right now with other problems. I get very depressed at times, and my health is generally not good so I just don't want a large number of ferrets/ animals anymore. The veterinary costs are also horrendous. I want to have quality time with my ferrets which is only possible if I don't have too many (groups). So I will not be taking in any more ferrets unless it is an emergency, a stray, biter etc. If you have ferrets and decide to give them up, then please find them a *good* home yourself. You decided to have ferrets, they're your responsibility, and in an ideal world you would look after them until they die. I am getting really sad when I think of all the ferrets/ animals that are discarded like an old unwanted toy. To look for a new home, put "ferret rescues" into Google and have a look, or get in touch with the "National Ferret Welfare Society" or a big rescue like "Mercia Ferret Welfare" as those 2 have a lot of contacts all over the UK and can help better than I can... The RSPCA is another possibility although many centres will put ferrets to sleep if they don't find a home within 24 hours!

And just in case some genius is dumping cats on my doorstep, considering 2 kittens, one of them injured, materialised outside of the house and I could not find their original homes in the village- please stop it. I can't take in an unlimited number of cats, either, and the next one will be taken to the RSPCA.

Links to my other pages

You will find links to all my other pages below. The left link takes you to pages about my ferrets and to health related pages that I have done and also health related links to other web pages. You will also find the raw feeding pages and links there as I think feeding raw has a positive effect on health.

The ferrets have also suffered so much ill health that I have written about every health problem that I have encountered. Every ferret that dies has an autopsy and since the end of 2001, I have taken pictures during the autopsies and operations. In the hope that it will help other ferret owners. I also want to collect autopsy reports from other people's ferrets with a possible write up about the progression of their ferret's illness, symptoms, etc. The more information we have about ferret illnesses, the better. I know there are ferret veterinary books (I have pretty much all of them) but real life cases, written in plain English, will really help other people.

The right link will take you to other general ferret information, information about West Wales Ferret Welfare, info for ferret people and people who are thinking about getting ferrets, and there's also pages about our dogs Poppy and Millie, cats Squeaky and Stripey, and skunks Tyler, Peppy, Blossom and Sparky (and information about myself). Last not least 2 pages with pictures of our garden, the first page shows how Pete ferret proofed it and the second page shows ferrets and the other animals in the garden.

Last update 15/04/2013 Last update 24/04/2013

Latest updates:

(24/04/2013)
Skunk Sparky

(15/04/2013)
Charlie
Jake
Our dogs and cats (Logan & Blob)
Squirt
Skunk Peppy
Post mortem, operation and x-ray pictures

(01/08/2012)
Our dogs and cats (Pontus)
Tigger

For anybody interested, I have videos of the animals on YouTube and pictures of the animals on Picasa:
My YouTube channel
Pictures on Google+

E-mail me :-)

Please sign my guestbook

The guestbook is a form you can fill in which will be sent to me via e-mail. I will then put the answers I get on the guestbook entries page. :-) If you have trouble signing the guestbook (I think Hotmail, Yahoo and AOL might not let you use the form...), you can always e-mail me a little guestbook entry which I can then put on the guestbook entries page.
:-)

Guestbook entries part 1
Guestbook entries part 2

Last update 01/08/2012