Ferret owners must be familiar with ferret smell. It is that certain fishy smell that can stay on your ferret forever if you let it. If ferret breeders do not teach you on how to deal with this problem, you might be irritated every time you look for your ferret. And every time you catch him, you would ask yourself: “how to stop ferret smell?”
One reason why ferrets have that bad smell around is because of the dander. They usually have it, and this is the reason ferret breeders leave them alone in the cage for a long time, even when they are clean. They have to clean the cage frequently to make sure that the smell will go away. You might think: cleaning the cage is not important since they do not have any parasites. This is not correct; they do carry diseases, which you might not know about just by looking at them.
Somtimes, you might find a small puddle of ferret urine in the corner of their cage. Since ferrets tend to urinate frequently, you might get this when they get older. Aside from this, they might also get their nails stuck somewhere, which makes them release some foul odor.
Some ferret breeders do not like to handle this kind of smell because they feel it as being cruel. They would rather let the ferret suffer. But think about this: they are the ones who love their pets so they are the ones who should take good care of them. If you do not want to be around that kind of smell, you should just be considerate of your ferret.
If you have enough patience, you can actually train your ferret not to produce that smell. But let us face it; ferrets are not born knowing how to act or anything about making a stink. Hence, this is something you will have to teach them. When it comes to ferret breeders, you can simply tell them that it will take time and that they should just be patient.
As mentioned earlier, ferret breeders often use harsh smelling sprays to get rid of the smell. You might be wondering if this is really necessary since ferrets are not that aggressive. While ferrets may not know how to make a stink yet, they are still animals so they will try to smell their surroundings. You could just spray the entire area with a toxic spray to make the ferret to stop what he is doing and go to another room.
But this does not always work. There are cases wherein the ferret keeps on peeing and pooping even when sprayed. In this case, there is only one solution left for you. You will need to do a permanent cleanup. Once you have ferret smell removed, you could train your pet to associate the smell with something positive such as a food.
What is the best option for you to do in this case? Just remember that ferrets are very sensitive to their environment. Once you make them understand that there will be a bad smell coming soon, they will eventually understand and try to avoid it. You can do this by feeding them only with a certain food and keeping the cage door open. If you want to keep the training short, just let them stay there for a few minutes. This is enough to make them realize that bad smell means something bad is going to happen soon.
Another trick that ferret breeders recommend is to give your ferret a bath once a week. You may also use your own water but you should make sure that the water that you are using is clean and fresh. You can get this from the kitchen sink. It will just be better if you can do it yourself so that you won’t be spending too much time cleaning it up. Once done, you will find that ferrets are no longer afraid of the smell since this is what they are supposed to smell like.
Aside from keeping their cages, ferret breeders also recommend hanging newbies’ toys near the litter box. You should also put different toys in the cage. Your ferret may become bored with just one toy or you may want to play with different ones. But do not move the toys too often because this may also disturb your ferret’s sleeping habits.
These are just some of the tips that ferret owners have used in cleaning up their pets’ smell. You might want to try these tricks to make sure that your ferret smells good all the time. Aside from keeping their cage clean, they should also be given enough time to run around and play inside. Playing with your ferret will surely alleviate any signs of ferret smell as long as you give them enough room to play.
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