Camping WITH Your Ferret
So this page is for you if you're looking for information on camping with your ferret. Technically this site is all about camping supplies and camping in general (if you're looking for ferrety goodness check out Laughing Ferret)- so the site's not so much ferret specific, however we get this question a lot, due in large part to our name. The little guy up there in the banner is named Boris, and he's one of our several ferrets around the house, so I thought I'd take a moment and put our advice on this one out. Camping with your ferret? PLEASE DON'T!
But why not? Well Boris and his kin are expert escape artists. Given the opportunity they're more than happy to bolt out a door, or even more conveniently, a tent! And a domestic ferret is ill equipped to deal with the great outdoors. There are all kinds of predators, both large and small that can injure or even kill your pet. Dogs, cats, not to mention any wild critters running around the camp site are bad news. How about fleas, ticks and spiders? In addition to painful bites, they can also pass on disease. Speaking of which you also have to worry about little bitty bugs- the microscopic kind. Part of the joy in getting outdoors is getting dirty. This is fine for you- however your ferret can get into any number of nasty things at a campsite (animal droppings, a carcass, etc) and become sick. There's also the usual suspects for our bigger animal friends, distemper and rabies.
A tent presents a minor obstacle- they can be out that zipper quicker that you can say "Where's Bandit???". I had a friend who took a couple of her ferrets out and put them in playpen fence. Escape time was less than 5 minutes- they either scaled the walls or dug to freedom. Oh yes, they very much enjoy digging, and even if you don't lose them out of the pen you can loose them down a freshly created burrow. Did I mention heat stroke? Ferrets tolerate the cold much better than heat, and if it gets warm out they are vulnerable to heat stroke and heat exhaustion. Bottom line, if you're thinking about taking your ferret camping, please don't. There's too much for them to get into, and your camping trip is supposed to be a fun get away, not a life threatening event for your pet. Weasel Words has a great article on Outdoor Dangers for Ferrets.
