Do cats and ferrets mix well ?

asparkles98

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My last cat loved my sister's ferrets. Mostly chasing them around, but I have a cat now whos been only cat for 5 months. He's 8 months old. Im rescuing a ferret that I gave to my friend a year ago, thinking he would take care of him, but has not been keeping up with playing ferret games and cleaning his cage. He's going to give him to any takers, so I'm bringing him home this week. He's also deaf so I don't know if he will mix with Mr. Mischief, my kitty. Any insight ??
 

babytobee

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We found, on accident, a ferret that had escaped from a local breeder. We kept her until we found a home for her but in the meantime, she got along great with Tobee. Actually, she terrorized Tobee! Nipping at his tail then scampering away and driving him crazy. She was just too smelly for us to keep. I can't handle that musky ferret smell. Anyhow, we were worried at first, but after seeing how she was able to defend herself just fine, we felt comfortable letting her roam around and play with Tobee. Hope it helps. Good luck!

~Amy
 
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asparkles98

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Thanks amy. Strangely, my landlord told me she likes the way ferrets smell so I took that as a full permission to collect them!!
 

bemyonlyone

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I knew someone who had a ferret and now I'm a bit prejudiced against them. Not only was the ferret smelly, but she would bite me in the most sensitive part of my arm when I was holding her--hard. I had no idea why she kept biting me and to this day I don't like ferrets. I know not all ferrets are that badly behaved, but...eh.
 

fuzzmom

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As with any meeting, do it slowly. Let the ferret get settled in for a couple of days before doing introductions. You might also want to put a towel where the cat sleeps so his odor is on it and place it with the ferret so he gets use to his sent. When doing introductions, have one person hold the ferret and one person hold the cat. Let them sniff each other but keep the intros short. Do NOT let the fert run around on the ground until you are certain the cat does not have a high prey drive.

I know when I had my 4 ferts that they loved everyone and everything and pretty much ruled the household. Most ferts have no fear of anything, but a deaf one may be different. I had a couple of ferts who enjoyed playing with my dog. It was really funny to watch. Both cats and dogs had respect for the ferts and never thought of them as prey.

Here was Stretch being checked out by Salem and Taz



These were my 3 girls - Snow White, Sunshine and Ashley



Taz trying to explain that this is a C A T tree



Snow White enjoyed playing with Indy and would jump up and grab his fur.








Just take it slowly and they will probably become the best of friends. I would love to see pics of the 2 of them together.
 

fuzzmom

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Originally Posted by bemyonlyone

I knew someone who had a ferret and now I'm a bit prejudiced against them. Not only was the ferret smelly, but she would bite me in the most sensitive part of my arm when I was holding her--hard. I had no idea why she kept biting me and to this day I don't like ferrets. I know not all ferrets are that badly behaved, but...eh.
bemyonlyone - I'm sorry you had a bad experience.

My girls would do the lick...lick...CHOMP routine with me. It wasn't an aggressive behavior, just a ferret thing. Stretch, my only boy, never did it. I got to know when they were about to do it and would just distract them. One thing you learn about ferrets is to NEVER pull away if they do grab onto you. You have to override the instinct to pull away because that is when you will get hurt. Unless they are really serious about biting they will not break the skin unless you pull while they are holding down. Ferrets bite and hold on so to get them to let go try to pry open the mouth, if that doesn't work get some bitter apple spray and let them get a taste of that. They will let go.

Any ferret you get from a pet store comes from a ferret mill and will be descented. A healthy ferret will not have a smell as long as you don't bathe them unless absolutely necessary and change their bedding every week or two. The worst thing to do is to give them lots of baths because that will cause the skin to produce more oil which means more of a smell. Most people don't realize that giving baths causes the problem instead of solving it.

Do NOT give them food that is based on fish (Marshall Farms) as this will cause their poop to smell HORRIBLE! Give them chicken based food. Totally Ferret is an excellent high quality kibble and I also loved The Ferret Store kibble.
 

fuzzmom

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Originally Posted by asparkles98

Thanks amy. Strangely, my landlord told me she likes the way ferrets smell so I took that as a full permission to collect them!!
When they were young kits I LOVED smelling them after they had been sleeping for awhile because they smelled like butter popcorn. I would pick them up, stick my nose in their fur and just take a deep breath.

Yeah, I know I'm weird.
 

chausiefan

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my cats and ferrets always got along great but shockingly a friend of mine had a bad experience. HIs cat actually lost its fuse and KILLED one of his ferrets and terrorized the other 1 so bad that it took them so long to find her.
 
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asparkles98

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thanks so much !! The pics are GREAT and answered alot of my questions. I actually bought the ferret a year ago with my sister. we both paid half. She had one ferret that she took from a group during a break up with her fiance. He is definately deaf because he has the "blaze" which is a white stripe down his forehead, and he sleeps through anything/everything. About a month or so later, my sister kicked me out of her apt. when I didn't have anywhere to stay to move in her new boyfriend. I moved back into my mom's house for 3 weeks, and gave the ferret to my friend who already had 2 more out of spite than anything. My sister is on the crazy side. Anywho, my friend hasn't been taking care of the 3 ferrets at all, he is spending all this time remodeling his house and doesn't clean their cage very often at all. All 3 now have very very bad habits. (pooping everywhere) so I only want to take the one I paid for, and have a connection with so they don't ruin my carpets which my landlord would be upset about (new carpet) I want him to be friends with Mr. Mischief so I'll heed the good advice of introducing them slowly. I may even get him a ferrettbuddy down the road, when I have the money or can find a good adopt.
Thanks again
 

nekochan

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All the ferrets I've known were fine with cats and dogs, however my cat was freaked out by the ferrets... I think a lot of cats are nervous around ferrets because they don't know what to make of them--prey? predator? competition?
I never had a problem with them though because when the ferrets were running around the cat would just run and hide. My dog on the other hand LOVED the ferrets!
 

clairebear

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It really depends on the cat. Some get along great with them, other's hate them. I would never leave a cat and a ferret unsupervised together.

And as for the person that said ferrets smell. The only time a ferret smells is when they are not being properly cared for. With the correct diet and maintenance there really isn't any noticebale smell.
 
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asparkles98

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oh my Bean is quite the cutie !! And that is true, Ferrets do not smell under proper care.
This is my plan for the intro:
I am going to first put the ferret cage in my bedroom close to my bed. Let Mischief sniff it out and get used to it for a few days. Then I will give them a closely supervised first meeting. I am a loner so I won't be able to have someone hold each one, but I'm great at multi-tasking.
About a week later I am going to move the ferret cage into Mischief's bedroom as long as everything is going well. Just because ferrets are nocturnal and often are noisy at night, as well as cats. And i can't risk sleepless nights to have to cage close. Does anyone think that this could be detrimental however? I mean mischief's bedroom is essentially "his" bedroom. It's an extra room and I have his pan in there, food dishes, and he loves to sit in the window and climb on the bookshelf which is the only furniture in that room. Has anyone found their cat to be territorial of something like this ?
 

yorda

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My cats have never had a problem sharing with my ferrets in a territorial sense- but I would avoid doing that if I ever felt one animal was terrified or agitated by the otherâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s presence since both animals should feel safe enough in their own space. That goes both ways, as I have separated my ferrets when one was going blind and didnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t feel safe with the younger cats anymore, and I have had to move my last remaining ferret out of the catsâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji] rooms because they didnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t feel comfortable around him since he will go after them when let out, as I did not want them scared to eat or use the litter boxes.
 
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