Having owned many ferrets, the simple truth is, nothing can hold a ferret.
He he he! Ferrets are the BEST! I've had about half a dozen ferrets over the years, and I didn't think anything could be more difficult to wrangle. My ferrets never tolerated collars, leashes, or sock sweaters. Basically, they would just struggle non-stop until they were free. I guess I never really needed to restrict the ferrets. I recall taking one of my ferrets down to Maryland for adrenal surgery, and having no issues with recovery. She never chewed the stitches or anything. Rats have all the same issues as ferrets, combined with a deep need to chew the hell out of everything. Like ferrets, they have very loose skin, and rats are able to stretch out like a ferret, but also turn themselves into a sphere. Almost impossible to keep anything on them.
I tried a cone (the vet made from an x-ray print), but it lasted less then half an hour, and she could not feed herself properly while wearing it. (Rats use their hands much more so then ferrets) I have tried several different kinds of wraps, with inconsistent results. The sweater has been the best so far, but she opened up the second one, and after a trip to the vet today, we are on the third attempt at a body cover... really, REALLY needing this to work! After the initial surgery, there were two more times being stitched up, and several more vets visits related to this... Despite it all, she has just been so sweet, it is really breaking my heart. Keep your paws crossed everyone!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
How can the same person keep both ferrets and rats? Ferrets were domesticated specifically to kill rats!
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
My wife has a husband, but she considers that to be more of an annoying pet than an exotic one.
~grins~
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Several of our ferrets were afraid of our rats, and the rats would ride them like bulls, it was one of the funniest and oddest things I have ever seen. (rats never bit the fuzz butts, just annoyed and rode them)
Sending good vibes for recovery to Fergie! Hmm, there has to been a solution to this chewing issue, thinking cap engage. (can't very well be a druid and not help now can I :) )
How can the same person keep both ferrets and rats? Ferrets were domesticated specifically to kill rats!
The ferrets were at various points over the last 30 years or so. My first ferret was Silas, who I adopted on Feb 15, 1988 or 89. Little Bear, Shadow, Hudson, Charlie, and Ivan arrived over the years. Ivan passed around 2008.
The rats were a new thing for me. I didn't anticipate adopting them, it just sort of happened, but I'm really glad it did.
Thanks for the good vibes GM_Beernog! I'm kind of running on them at this point after Brin slipped her outfit last night, then slipped the wrap we tried, then slipped the new outfit I made as well. ugh. Why Brin, why!?! Basically, I have to just hope she heals without a cover, as I just don't know what else to do at this point. Yet another vet visit tomorrow, and I'm just trying to get through the next 20 hours.
Maybe try something (treat wise) that she really likes, aka, a distraction from chewing her wound/stitches?
Maybe try something (treat wise) that she really likes, aka, a distraction from chewing her wound/stitches?
We have been giving her rawhide chew toys which has been working fairly well, and rubbing in a little peanut butter to really keep her interest. The trouble is that rats are compulsive groomers, and it only takes a minute or less to undo the vets fine work. About the time the photo was taken we had to give up on keeping the wound stitched closed, and hope that it would close up on its own. At the end of last week the wound seemed to reach a turning point where it now looks like a nasty scrape, rather then a hole you can look through to see what a skinless rat looks like. On Saturday, she went back to the vet and they did a quick cleaning and switched up the antibiotics. They put on a new sweater thing I made out of stretchy material, that thanks to my mediocre sewing skills looked like a rat version of the catwoman suit. I would have gotten some pictures, but she slipped it off within minutes of getting home!
Things are really looking positive, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that today's vet visit will be the last one related to this.
Rats get a +10 bonus racial bonus to escape artist checks!
I would give them a +10 to Acrobatics as well, balancing on the rim of a beer glass is not easy, even for a rat! Maybe it was the Guinness giving them an additional alchemical bonus to Acro :).
Good to hear things are looking up (also good call with the peanut butter, no rat is history could ignore that!)
A new catfish has joined my aquatic family, I am now the proud owner of a synodontis schoutedeni, have to admit, I have a soft spot for catfish from Africa, what can I say, barbels are adorable.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Well I have been in my new house for a while now and the local animals have adopted me.
There is a big fat mommy squirrel that lives in my front yard. To her I am the new zoo exhibit. She will sit outside my big living room window in the little tree there and watch me while I clean my enclosure, as I play on my Playstation, as I watch TV, or as I curl up on my sofa with a book. I worry about her kids though. They LOVE to play. They chase each other all over the yard and up and down trees... but frighteningly into and across the street as well. I worry they will get hit by a car. I wish I could speak squirrel so I could scold her to watch her children better.
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
When I was in 3rd grade, my teacher gave us an assignment to raise silkworms for the school year (their life cycle being about that long). We watched them hatch, eat mulberry leaves (the only thing they eat), grow, spin cocoons, hatch as fuzzy, flightless moths, hop around, mate, lay eggs, and die. We were then given the option of taking them home to watch the cycle continue, provided we could provide them with mulberry leaves. Our house at the time had a big mulberry tree in the front yard, so I did. I took the eggs home, and cared for each new generation every year thereafter until 7th/8th grade, when my family moved to a new house that didn't have a mulberry tree. We finally gave that year's eggs back to my 3rd-grade teacher, who was shocked to learn that, unlike her, we hadn't been refrigerating the eggs over the Winter so that they wouldn't hatch until the new year's mulberry leaves were ready; we hadn't really thought about that, and of course, it wasn't necessary; the eggs waited until Spring to hatch of their own accord - so in the end, I taught her something!
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I'm not sure this counts but...
About a year ago, a very skittish underfed stray male cat (looks partially a very-shorthaired Rex [Edit: Or maybe part-Sphynx]) started coming by to visit the two sister cats, and to gulp down anything vaguely food-like. The sisters seem ok with him, so we kept putting out extra food for him on the backporch and tried not to startle him. Six months or so ago, he decided to hang around pretty much full-time, and discovered he really likes table scraps (which the remaining sister cat refuses to even nibble). About a month ago, I was able to slowly walk up to him, and very gently pet him for brief periods (mostly chin and cheek scritchies).
Anyway... we've been putting his daily kibble and water out on the backporch, along with any people-food cooked scraps that aren't too fatty or dangerous (like splintery poultry bones or lethal stuff: onions, chocolate, etc.). Shortly after, we started noticing that a couple bluejays started coming by to grab some food (none of the cats demonstrate any interest in hunting them) and drink from the water dish. Then yard lizards starting regularly stealing bits of kibble. And then at least one bullfrog started eating it. The last two mornings, we have a new kibble thief: a garden slug. I have no idea what might show up next.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
When the grapefruit tree in my front yard was past ripeness and the fruit kept falling, the yard squirrel would gorge on the fallen fruit. It got so fat it could barely hop around or climb, just waddle from grapefruit to grapefruit to hiding place. The cats watched intently from indoors and wanted desperately to go out and eat him, but I vetoed that and kept them in, because rotting fruit in the yard attracts flies, but empty rinds are fairly harmless. I almost got to thinking of the squirrel as a pet.
I do view the lizards living in the bougainvillea to be very welcome residents and semi-pets, but when it rains too much (and this spring has been nothing but), they tend to find ways into the house -- and the kitties are always anxious to hunt them there, which makes me sad.
Creative Director
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I often kept alligator lizards as pets growing up; they were wild and pretty plentiful in the woods around my house, and made great pets. You could train them to eat out of your hand, but I much preferred dropping their food (grasshoppers or crickets) into the cage to watch them stalk and hunt, since it was kinda like having a dinosaur in my room.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
When the grapefruit tree in my front yard was past ripeness and the fruit kept falling, the yard squirrel would gorge on the fallen fruit. It got so fat it could barely hop around or climb, just waddle from grapefruit to grapefruit to hiding place. The cats watched intently from indoors and wanted desperately to go out and eat him, but I vetoed that and kept them in, because rotting fruit in the yard attracts flies, but empty rinds are fairly harmless. I almost got to thinking of the squirrel as a pet.
My parents have a giant mango tree in their back yard that produces a prodigious amount of mangoes every year. We pick them up in a 5-gallon bucket and put them out with the yard waste because no one will take them. Once they are past ripe and start to ferment, the squirrels start eating them and seem to get drunk-ish off them. Thankfully the cats are exceptionally lazy, even for cats, and have no interest in hunting the staggering clumsy little fuzzers.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
When the grapefruit tree in my front yard was past ripeness and the fruit kept falling, the yard squirrel would gorge on the fallen fruit. It got so fat it could barely hop around or climb, just waddle from grapefruit to grapefruit to hiding place. The cats watched intently from indoors and wanted desperately to go out and eat him, but I vetoed that and kept them in, because rotting fruit in the yard attracts flies, but empty rinds are fairly harmless. I almost got to thinking of the squirrel as a pet.My parents have a giant mango tree in their back yard that produces a prodigious amount of mangoes every year. We pick them up in a 5-gallon bucket and put them out with the yard waste because no one will take them. Once they are past ripe and start to ferment, the squirrels start eating them and seem to get drunk-ish off them. Thankfully the cats are exceptionally lazy, even for cats, and have no interest in hunting the staggering clumsy little fuzzers.
I have never wanted to live closer to you (or maybe your parents) in my entire life. My panamanian soul weeps at the thought of so many mango going to waste, truly.
I often kept alligator lizards as pets growing up; they were wild and pretty plentiful in the woods around my house, and made great pets. You could train them to eat out of your hand, but I much preferred dropping their food (grasshoppers or crickets) into the cage to watch them stalk and hunt, since it was kinda like having a dinosaur in my room.
Did this inspire the avatar you chose?
Growing up in remember watching for soused deer while pulling into my driveway in the late fall due to Apple trees.
The deer were so thick my last year in western PA that the neighbor bagged two of them in the driveway -- with his truck. Spread out a tarp and was good to go.
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
My parents have a giant mango tree in their back yard that produces a prodigious amount of mangoes every year. We pick them up in a 5-gallon bucket and put them out with the yard waste because no one will take them. Once they are past ripe and start to ferment, the squirrels start eating them and seem to get drunk-ish off them. Thankfully the cats are exceptionally lazy, even for cats, and have no interest in hunting the staggering clumsy little fuzzers.
One of the places I worked had a groundhog living in a den against the building, and an apple tree out front. He was shy, and we almost never saw him, but when the apples fell and started to ferment on the ground, he'd gorge himself and sit out in the sun, flat on his back, showing us his belly as we walked by, not a care in the world.
So, not only a drunk, but also a flasher! Animals these days!
|
Creative Director
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I often kept alligator lizards as pets growing up; they were wild and pretty plentiful in the woods around my house, and made great pets. You could train them to eat out of your hand, but I much preferred dropping their food (grasshoppers or crickets) into the cage to watch them stalk and hunt, since it was kinda like having a dinosaur in my room.Did this inspire the avatar you chose?
Not really... I've just always been a lizard fan. Being a dinosaur fan is parallel with and stacks with lizard fandom.
This is true, we have a very tubby squirrel in our yard, who each year, when the All Hollows Eve pumpkins begin to ferment, eats some of them, and gets absolutely hammered. I have seen this particular squirrel fall of no less than three trees, such lushes, these modern suburban squirrels!
Great stories folks, keep 'em coming!
