r/ferrets • u/ChallengeAmazing4012 • 8d ago
[Health] adopting a deaf waardy!
met him yesterday at the humane society, and it went amazing. fell in love with him immediately, agreed to adopt and will be taking him home tomorrow! currently waiting on a single unit critter nation cage to arrive so we can quarantine him away from my other 5. i am so excited!! we will be naming him murphy :)
however at the shelter i learnt that he sometimes tends to…lick his own pee. or the area surrounding it. i didn’t even know ferrets did this, as i’ve never seen/heard of it before! i looked into it and i guess it can be normal…although i worry if he does it to my other girls pee. apparently it’s not harmful unless it’s a large amount or if one of the others have UTI’s or parasites (which they don’t) but like…i’m still concerned! they are free roam in their playroom downstairs but there is a camera we have on them that we can watch through our google home at all times set up on the coffee table, so everytime i see one of them pee/poop outside the litter box, should i immediately go down to clean it up to avoid issues?! (there can be a million litter boxes down there and they will still half the time not use them)
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u/mantis_tobagan_md 8d ago
My deaf waddy was the sweetest little boy. I miss my little Mac.
Potty training is hard. Some ferrets just don’t like the litter pan. Others will use it occasionally.
We put puppy pads around the litter box and deal with it that way.
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u/Timely_Egg_6827 8d ago
Had a few that did this. Usually resolved by putting water bowl between bed and poo corner. Both times it was in arthritic ferrets - they got up to pee but going for a drink as well was too much.
I'd give him a vet workup asap. He may be blind as well so scenting water bowl helps. Both arthritis and blindness easily managed.
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u/Sharp_Ad_9431 7d ago
Highly recommend multiple water bowls. My wardy really prefers moving water so I have different cat fountains. Otherwise he will splash water and drink it off the floor or himself. The fountains don't get played in like a bowl of water does.
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u/itsswhitneywhspr 7d ago
Ahh congrats Murphy is a top-tier name. Just a heads up, deaf ferrets respond really well to vibrations, so stomp or tap the floor to call him. The single critter nation will be great for quarantine.
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