"Woo hoo! So what�s on the agenda for today, ferret-loving lady?"
My, my, my...this sure is a change in attitude. Last time, I believe you yawned when I said I was going to be writing something about ferrets every Friday.
"Oh, that wasn�t me. That was the other voice in your head"
[blink] Oh...there's more than one...
Anyway, today I�m going to write about ferrets and how much they sleep, which is heaps, by the way. And the reason I�ve decided to focus on that today is that I discovered (through my web tracker) that a few of the keyword searches on search engines that have landed people on my blog have involved ferrets and sleep. For example, on my blog�s list of searches, I found things like:
�Can a ferret be lazy?�
�Ferret is lazy and sleeps�
�How to wake up a ferret�
So, it seems to me that there are people out there desperate, yes desperate, for information about ferrets and their sleeping patterns. Perhaps their little fuzzy face is not up and about as much as they�d expected and they�re a) worried that it might be sick or b) surprised that what they expected to be a highly-energetic and super active pet has turned out to be a couch potato. Well, as much as I hate to burst the bubble for the people in category (b), if they were looking for a pet that is up and at �em for the majority of the day, they shouldn�t have taken a ferret home.
Photo from SXC
Ferrets love their beauty sleep. A healthy adult can sleep anywhere from 14 to 18 hours a day, with older ferrets sleeping more than younger ones. They typically sleep in two to six hour periods and sometimes get into DS (dead sleep) or DFS (dead ferret sleep) or FDS (ferret dead sleep). Call it what you want, one thing�s for sure: when ferrets sleep the dead sleep, they sleep very soundly.
�How soundly do they sleep in dead sleep?�
I�m so glad you asked. They sleep so soundly in �dead sleep� that an inexperienced owner may think their ferret has died when they find them in that state for the very first time. The animal in question will be limp, seemingly not breathing and almost impossible to wake up, no matter what its owner does. But relax; sooner or later your fuzzy will regain consciousness, figuratively speaking.
�I�ve heard that ferrets will sometimes sleep more than 18 hours�
They can, but they shouldn�t. Their polecat relatives sleep only between 15 to 18 hours a day and so should your ferret.
Photo from SXC
�So why do some domestic ferrets sleep more than they should?�
Because they�re bored, depressed and quite often physically unfit. I mean, think about it for a minute. A caged ferret has little room to maneuver; they don�t have enough room to exercise their body and to satisfy their abundant curiosity. With nothing else to do, they curl up and snooze. Eventually they become �couch potatoes�, and even when you do let them out, because they�re so out of shape or because their play area lacks stimulation, they�ll just plunk down somewhere and slowly drift off to sleep.
�How do you keep a ferret from becoming a couch potato?�
Ferrets need to get out of their cages a few hours a day to exercise and interact with their owners. Ideally, your pet should be out and about 4 hours a day, and definitely no less than two. If you can�t provide a ferret with the necessary amount of exercise that it needs, don�t take one home as a pet. Because although they will sleep quite a few hours a day, when they are awake, ferrets are highly-energetic, inquisitive and in need of contact (in the form of affection and playfulness) with you. Now, this does not mean that you have to hover over them the entire time that they are out of their cage; ferrets can play well on their own. It just means, don�t ignore them completely.
So, just to wrap up a post that is getting much too long, let�s just recap:
- Ferrets sleep 14 � 18 hours a day.
- They need a minimum of 2 hours (preferably 4) out of their cages to play and explore.
- Interacting with you is important to their happiness.
�What about free-roam ferrets, the ones whose owners don�t keep them locked in a cage?�
That�s a good question. But one that we�ll save for another day when I will write about �To cage or not to cage�
Now before I end this post, let�s peak in on Bailey.
Hey Bailey! What do you think about all the things I wrote today?
That�s what I thought.
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