A sable ferret crouched in a patch of window light on a dark floor

What a day with ferrets looks like

Short chores, long naps, a burst of chaos

The hands-on work is short. Morning and evening you top up food and water, scoop the litter pan and open the cage door, which takes 10 to 15 minutes each time. The rest is company: ferrets need 2 to 4 hours out of the cage every day, and they spend it chasing each other, diving through tunnels and dragging anything small into a hiding spot. You can cook or watch TV while they play, as long as the room is ferret-proofed and you can see them. Once a week the bedding goes in the wash and the cage gets wiped down. Ferrets do well in pairs because they wear each other out, but a single ferret is fine if you are the playmate.

Up to 18 of 24 hours asleep · 2 to 4 of the rest out of the cage

Check the law before you fall for one

Pet ferrets are banned in California, Hawaii and New York City. A few other cities, counties and military bases ban them or require a permit, so look up your state wildlife agency and your city code first.
Renters: get ferrets named in the lease. Many leases that allow cats and dogs exclude them.
Most states require a current rabies vaccination for ferrets. Keep the certificate: if an unvaccinated ferret bites someone, local health rules can call for quarantine or worse.
Crossing state lines or flying usually takes a recent health certificate from a vet, and airlines set their own ferret policies.

Look up your state

American Ferret Association: legal issues Free state-by-state summary of ferret laws and rabies rules

How to get started

Tick these off as you go

Find a shelter and a vet first

Feeding a strict carnivore

Meat only

Ferrets cannot digest plants. Feed a dry ferret food with 30 to 40 percent protein and about 20 percent fat, where the first few ingredients are named meats and the fiber is under 4 percent.

Always available

Leave food and fresh water out around the clock. Food passes through a ferret in about three hours, so they eat eight to ten small meals a day and do not overeat on a proper diet.

Never feed

Fruit, vegetables, raisins, dairy or anything sugary. Sugar is hard on the pancreas, and insulinoma is one of the most common ferret diseases.

Treats

A lick of salmon oil, a bit of cooked egg or a shred of plain cooked meat, kept to a small part of the day's food.

Changing foods

Ferrets fix on what they ate as kits. Mix the new food into the old over two weeks, and get a young ferret used to two foods so a recall or a shortage is not a crisis.

A sable ferret sniffing along a black floor with its nose down — Nose to the floor

A pale ferret with a dark mask looking out through the wire mesh of a cage

Choosing a cage and ferret-proofing a room

If the head fits through, the ferret does

Size

A multi-level wire cage about 3 feet wide, with room on each level for a ferret to stretch out.

Bar spacing

1 inch or less. Ferrets squeeze through anything their head fits through.

Floors and ramps

Solid or covered. Bare wire catches toes.

Doors

Full-width doors make the weekly clean far easier than small hatches. They should latch firmly, since ferrets learn to push weak doors open. Skip glass tanks, which trap ammonia and heat.

Inside the cage

A hammock or sleep sack on each level and the litter pan in a corner away from the food. Ferrets back into corners to go, so the corner yours picks is where the pan belongs.

Temperature

Keep the room between 65 and 75°F. Ferrets cannot sweat and can die of heatstroke in the 80s, so a cage near a sunny window or in a hot garage is dangerous.

The play room

Block gaps wider than 1 inch, latch low cabinets, and keep ferrets out of rooms with recliners or sofa beds, whose mechanisms can crush them.

Small soft things

Pick up foam, rubber, earplugs, erasers and shoe insoles. Swallowed pieces cause intestinal blockages, the top ferret emergency. Check the washer and dryer before every load.

Health and vet care

Ferrets need two vaccines: canine distemper, which is nearly always fatal to them, and rabies. Kits get a distemper series ending around 14 weeks and both shots yearly after that, on the schedule your vet sets.
Wait at the clinic for 30 minutes after any vaccine. Ferrets react to vaccines more often than cats or dogs, and a reaction is easy to treat on the spot.
Book a checkup every year, and twice a year from age 3 or 4. Adrenal disease and insulinoma are common in older ferrets: watch for hair loss starting at the tail, or weakness, drooling and pawing at the mouth.
Ferrets catch the human flu. If you are sick, wash your hands, keep your face away from theirs and let someone else do the handling if you can.
A ferret that stops eating, vomits, strains in the litter pan or has not pooped in a day may have a blockage. That is a same-day vet visit, not a wait-and-see.
Pet-store ferrets in the US are sold already spayed or neutered and descented. If yours comes from a breeder, confirm it: an unspayed female left in heat can die of anemia.
Trim nails every two weeks and ask the vet to show you how to clean ears at the first exam. Bathe once a month at most, because stripping the skin oils makes the musky smell stronger.

Read before the first vet visit

American Ferret Association: vaccination protocols Free vaccine policy to read before your first vet visit

A white ferret standing upright, steadied by two hands, against a dark backdrop — Held upright in two hands

What trips beginners up

The smell never goes to zero. Descenting removes the spray, not the musk in the skin. Washing the bedding weekly and scooping daily does more than any bath or spray.
Litter training tops out around 80 to 90 percent. Expect accidents in corners, put a second pan in the play room, and praise hits instead of punishing misses.
Young ferrets nip hard because that is how they play with each other. Scruff the ferret, say no and set it down for a minute. Never flick its nose, which teaches it to fear hands.
Vet bills are the real cost. Adrenal and insulinoma treatment can run into the hundreds or thousands over a ferret's life, so start a vet fund the day you bring one home.
Buying a small starter cage and replacing it within a month is the most common wasted purchase.
Clumping clay litter and cedar or pine shavings irritate ferret lungs and get stuck in noses. Use paper pellets only.
Leaving a ferret caged all day makes it restless and harder to handle. If nobody is home most evenings, this is not the right pet.

Where to learn more

The Merck Veterinary Manual has free, vet-written chapters on ferret housing, diet and the common diseases, and it is the place to check a symptom before you call the clinic. The American Ferret Association publishes a new-owner FAQ, health articles and a book list, and sanctions ferret shows around the country. A show is a good afternoon out even without a ferret: shelters, breeders and long-time owners are all in one room and happy to answer questions. Your nearest ferret shelter is the best local source of help, and most will talk a new owner through nail trims, biting or a picky eater.

Free care guides and ferret shows

Two pale ferrets asleep, curled against each other behind cage bars — Two ferrets asleep in a pile

About the shopping list

The cage is the one large purchase, and it is where to spend: a roomy cage with full-width doors lasts the ferret's whole life and is easier to clean. Everything else is cheap. Bedding, the litter pan, bowls and a carrier come to less than the cage even at the top of each range, and food and litter are the only things you keep buying, at roughly the cost of feeding a cat. The list does not include the ferret, the first vet exam or the vaccines, which together usually cost more than the gear. The recommended items earn their place in the first month: a tunnel for play, clippers and salmon oil for the nail trims every two weeks, and enzyme cleaner for the accidents that happen during litter training.

A ferret peeking out of a brown fleece hanging bed suspended on chains — Peeking out of a hanging bed

Kit out the cage

Compare the options on each line, then set your tiers and check out from the cart. Clicking a card selects it there, and clicking the selected card again takes that line out. The first line, the ferret, is not something you buy online: it comes from a shelter, a pet store or a breeder.

Ferret or bonded pair

essentialThe animal

The ferret itself. Ferrets are social, and many shelters adopt out bonded pairs that have to stay together.

Not sold on Amazon · shelter, pet store or breeder

Not sold on Amazon. Adopt from a ferret shelter (typically $75 to $150, vaccines included) or buy from a pet store or breeder ($150 to $350). Look for bright eyes, a full coat, a clean rear end and a ferret that is curious about your hand. Ask for vaccination records and the food it is eating now.

Multi-level ferret cage

essentialHousing

Ferrets sleep and eat in the cage and stay in it whenever nobody is watching them, so it has to hold bedding, a litter pan and room to climb.

budget

Yaheetech 52-inch Ferret Cage 6 Level Metal Rat Cage with 3 Front Doors/Feeder/Wheels Small Animal Cage for Ferret/Chinchilla/Bunny/Rabbit/Squirrel, Black

4.3(5,221)

$128.99

Ferret Keeping

What a day with ferrets looks like

Check the law before you fall for one

How to get started

Feeding a strict carnivore

Choosing a cage and ferret-proofing a room

Health and vet care

What trips beginners up

Where to learn more

About the shopping list

Kit out the cage

Ferret or bonded pair

Multi-level ferret cage

High-protein ferret food

Hammock and sleep sack bedding

High-back corner litter pan

Paper pellet litter

Lock-on cage bowls

Small pet carrier

Play tunnel

Small animal nail clippers

Salmon oil

Enzyme cleaner

Ferret harness and leash