Training Your Ferret To Use The Litter Box
You ferret is loyal, loves you and wants to make you happy. However, when a ferret needs to pee or poop, they can’t hold on! Litter training a ferret is actually very easy - all you have to know is what their natural habits are.
First of all, you need to give your ferret access to open litter boxes - don’t get one with a cover!
The two best types of litter that you can get for your ferret is clumping litter or wood chip litter, both available from places where you buy cat supplies. You only need to cover the bottom of the litter tray with litter, don’t fill it up as you would for a cat.
Young ferrets are playful little mites and may start of thinking that the litter tray is their new playground! Don’t worry if your ferret does this, because as soon as it realizes what the litter tray is for - it will stop playing in it.
You may have noticed I mentioned litter trays in the plural earlier, this is because you are likely to need more than one! One will need to put in your ferret’s cage, and others will need to be strategically placed in corners of rooms, where your ferret roams free. Ferrets naturally go into to corners when they need to ‘go’.
Ferrets actually give us an indication of what they intend to do, when it comes to toilet habits! Instead of just going into a corner, they back into it. A ferret will just do its business and will not bury or dig holes for their ‘messes’, so it would be wise to change the litter trays on at at least a daily basis, to keep everything fresh.
Once you see this backing into the corner maneuver, you can pick your ferret up and pop him the litter tray. As your ferret is very intelligent and easy to train, it will very quickly ascertain what a litter tray is for, and seek them out when it needs to do its business.
You must not discipline your ferret when they mess in the wrong place, because they will see it as their general relieving themselves displeases you, not that it was bad to relieve itself in that particular spot. Discipline in this case would lead to your ferret fretting and worrying, every time it needs pee or poop.
Another great hint in teaching your ferret use the litter tray is learning when your ferret is likely to need to ‘go’. When a ferret first wakes up, they will need to relieve themselves, so while you are training them, you need to put them in the litter tray, as soon as they wake up. The next trick is to keep them there until they have relieved themselves.
As ferrets have very small digestive systems, it does not take long after eating or drinking, before it will need the litter tray. Also after a lot of excitement it may well need a litter tray, but not after just general playing.
As your ferret is very intelligent, the process of litter training should not take very long at all - just a few days. Your ferret will soon learn what a litter tray is for, and where it is expected to go, if it needs to relieve itself.
