Keeping a hyper ferret calm isn’t an easy task. It requires skills, effort, and experience. Unlike normal, mature ferrets, hyper ferrets are quite dangerous. Even if they recognize your face, they hurt you, bite you, or damage your precious belongings.
The feelings of agitation or anger make a ferret hyper.
He is already a high spirit animal, but when he is hyper or supercharged due to agitation, he wreaks havoc in your quiet, peaceful home. He may hurt other pets in your household as well.
So, in order to prevent them from turning into straight-up devils, you need to calm them down at once. This is the only option you have to control their hyperactivity and save other pets and precious belongings in your home.
What Causes The Erratic Behavior?
There are many things and situations that can cause erratic behavior in a ferret. You shouldn’t expect your pet ferret to stay calm all the time, but there are still situations that should stand out as irregular.
For example, they become agitated and erratic when you don’t give them enough room or space to play. A controlled environment or a small cage damages their core nature and works against their curious and energetic mood.
Therefore, if your ferret is continuously showing erratic behavior, it is probably a time to change their cage or give them more room to play.
You need to change their environment or bring new toys to the home to feed their curiosity.
Next, when a ferret is alone, he either becomes depressed or passes his time by destroying the other precious stuff in your house. The under-socialized environment can be the source of their hyperactivity and develop their nippy behavior.
Consider getting more ferrets for their company; you need to socialize them so that they learn to expend energy passing time with their friends.
An under-socialized ferret is often either depressed or hyperactive.
Are Young Ferrets More Hyper Than Older Ones?
I won’t say the young ferrets are always more hyper than the older ones, but they are more curious and more active especially when they are introduced to a new home.
They just want to explore everything, which makes them look unusual energetic.
But all ferrets have different levels of hyperactivity; some just like to jump around and want to relish interesting times with other pets in the home, while others look to explore new areas and destroy those things with their bites that irritate them.
For that reason, if your ferret is showing erratic behavior, it doesn’t mean all ferrets typically show the same behavior.
Ways To Calm A Ferret Down
Let them roam
One of the main reasons why a ferret becomes hyperactive or angry is spending too much time inside the cage. They don’t get enough to play outside to satisfy their curious nature. Moreover, they tend to have a lot of energy, and inside the cage, that energy turns into rage. For that reason, provide more space to them by getting them out of the cage more often. After getting them out of the cage, don’t restrict their movements. Let them run around and explore the house or play with the toys on their own. Of course, you will have problems if your room isn’t ferret-proof, but this is one of the best ways to control their erratic behavior. Consider some of these climbing toys that encourage them to play like they would in the wild.
Train them physically
Intense play and exercise time is another way that can manage a hyper ferret and tire him out. The intense play or exercise time depends on multiple things. For example, you can provide those toys that compel them to run, climb, and jump. Or, if you have a strong bond with your ferret, you can become their toy as well. Just let them chase you around the house; this will also burn out their excessive energy. There is another method that is quite popular with young ferrets; engage them in some kind of training, such as train them how to climb stairs.
Here are some other ways we encourage playing and having fun with your ferret.
Communicate
Communicate with them as much as you can. Any kind of interaction with your ferret establishes a good relationship and helps them in understanding your message. This can be tough with a young ferret, but train them as you train your puppy. You just need to interact like that. Use soft voice tone and hand gestures so that they can perceive your message. Similarly, there should be a sign or signal to show your disapproval to keep them within their limit. Ferrets are very intelligent and start comprehending your messages fast. They understand which signals or hand gestures are for appreciation and which voice tone and gestures are for punishment. When you achieve this kind of control and dominance over them, it becomes easier to cool them down when they are hyperactive.
Add competition
Bring in a companion or a group of other ferrets. We know this isn’t easy as it increases your responsibility, but if nothing is working out, this should be the only option that you should try. It will save your life and divert the mindset of your ferret also. The introduction of other ferrets can be difficult, therefore, the introduction should be gradual and slow under your inspection. They have to identify and accept each other presence. Don’t try to put all ferrets in one cage if there is no association among them. Once they know each other and start to bond, they start playing and don’t give you any attention, which is good in many ways. You don’t have to run around the entire time with your ferret to release his excessive energy; he will do that by himself with other playmates and relish his time more too in the company of other ferrets.
Conclusion
A hyperactive ferret with erratic behavior is always looking for something to do. Keep this one need in mind and you will be able to control him in a million ways. Give them as many activities as you can, and introduce the companionship of other ferrets wherever possible. Look into other forms of enrichment than the ones you are already providing, and see if there is something else your ferret is lacking in his day to day.
A common perception among professional veterinarians is that the erratic behavior in these pets isn’t forever. It is temporary because your ferret will calm down with age.
Even if an older ferret doesn’t have lots of toys or other ferrets around him, he can stay calm. This is because they are more mature and do not have the same swift movements as a young ferret does.
If you are dealing with a new ferret or simply don’t know its age, here are some tips to determine how old your ferret is.