|
On February 6th 2006 we lost our sweet Daisy Mae.
She became ill and did not last long after that. We will miss her and she will always have a special place on our hearts. Now the question was "will we bring a new one home?"
I have to tell you that within a week a new baby did arrive in our home. |
 |
Rikki is a cute cuddly sable colored male domestic ferret
( Mustela putorius furo).
He was bred at Marshals Ferrets farm and we purchased him from Petco.
Rikki looks like he is going to be a big boy. He has very large feet!
It did not take him long to work his way into our hearts.
We picked his name from one of his famous ancestors, the mongoose in a very famous story and the one that played in Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book . |
|
Please do not purchase a ferret on a whim. Ferrets are a big responsibility and yes they will bite, watch your fingers. However, after they are accustomed to their homes and family they very seldom ever bite. Ferrets are social animals and love to play and interact with their human family.
Read about the care and needs and be prepared to give them what they need just like any animal you might choose to bring in to your home.
Make sure they have plenty of ferret food and water; treats are OK in moderate quatities.
Ferrets are very curious little animals so you need to make sure you watch them closely so they do not chew electrical wires or scamper out the doggie door.
Whenever I tell any one I have a ferret the first comment from people that have never owned one is "gee don't they stink?"
Ferrets like all animals have an odor but it is controlled through cleanliness. Wash their bedding once a week and clean their litter pan every day. |
|
|
They also enjoy a bath, use ferret shampoo which is formulated for ferrets beautiful fur. Keep your ferret clean and you not be offended by any odors.
The little ferrets that you see in the pet shops are different species that their cousins in the wild. Your little ferret is the European or domestic ferret.
The Siberian polecat from Asia is similar to your ferret but the wild ferrets like the Black-footed ferrets belong to the family Mustelidae.
|
|
A Lost Colony
Black-footed ferrets use to roam across the prairies of central and western North America. These beautiful little animals are now on the endangered species list. The wild ferrets were found in abundance in the 1800’s from the Great Plains from Texas to southern Saskatchewan, Canada and followed the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.
As the prairie was settled large areas were plowed and made into farmlands, thus eliminating prairie dogs towns. The settlers would poison and burn the prairie dog towns which in turn wiped out the ferrets. Prairie dogs are the black footed ferrets’ main diet and they even live in the dens of the prairie dogs. This continued for many years and finally in 1950 there were very few ferrets left. A small family was found in South Dakota in 1964 and a few were taken in 1971 for a breeding program. It is sad to say that all of these ferrets died to either disease or old age. There were none successfully bred at that time. |
In 1967 this little critter was placed on the endangered species list. By 1970 many feared the cute little varmint was lost. But in 1981 there was a small family discover in Wyoming. This little family gave every one a ray of hope that we might be able to save the ferrets from becoming extinct. This family was studied and the research aided us with much needed information on this little mammal. In 1985 tragedy struck and canine distemper killed nearly all of the family. There were 18 saved and taken into custody to hopefully start a breeding program to save the species.
By 1987 the breeding program was showing some success and efforts are now underway to start to reintroduce some of the ferrets back into their historic range where adequate prairie dog towns now exist, due to saving the prairies from more farming.
These little ferrets way up to 2 ½ lbs, are 24 inches long including their 5-6inch tail. They are best noted for their black mask and feet. They belong to the family Mustelidae, which skunks, badgers, fishers, martens, the otter, mink, wolverine and the weasel also belongs to. These ferrets will also eat other small animals such as mice but their main meal is the prairie dogs. They will not survive without this meal and the burrows that the dogs live in. They hunt primarily night so chances of seeing them is very rare. They generally only live two or three years in the wild. |
 |
|
|
There are many things that kill the black-footed ferrets, diseases like distemper, starvation if the prairie dog town is destroyed, parasites, and predators such as owls, hawks, eagles, coyotes, badgers, and bobcats and yes even the farmer's dog. Which was how the Meeteetse ferrets were located.
With the help of state and federal agencies and the land owners it is our hope that by 2010 there will be around 1,500 ferrets of at least 10 free-ranging populations.
If you are lucky enough to see one of these little ferrets in the wild please contact your state wildlife agency, the Bureau of Land Management or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service. You can visit the Sybille Wildlife Research and Conservation Education Center 34 miles southwest of Wheatland, Wyoming, on State Highway 34, to learn more about the efforts to save the black-footed ferrets.
You can also contribute to the program by sending your contributions to: |
| |
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
18th and C Street NW Room 2725
Washington D.C. 20240 |
| |
|
