Before buying a ferret as pet you have to know few facts about them because they have some special behavior! If you haven’t heard about dooking, death sleep or bottle brush tail, you are at the right place! Here are the most interesting ferret behavioral facts a new ferret owner should know about:
1) The most famous ferret behavioral fact is the ferret war dance. A ferret war dance is a state of the highest excitement when a ferret jumps, runs and looks like it will fly! Ferrets are clumsy animals, but when they are doing their war dance, they are more clumsy than ever. They are running into walls, bouncing off furniture and acting all crazy! If you are in a bad mood, just go to Youtube and search ferret war dance – I guarantee you will laugh!
2) Another thing connected to ferret war dance is Dooking! Dooking is a term invented by ferret owners across the globe and it describes the sound a ferret makes when it is super excited and happy. It is hard to describe it, but I believe the best way is to describe it would be a sort of “chirping” or “clicking” sound.
3) Besides dooking, ferrets can make one more sound. They are actually pretty silent animals and most of the time. You’ll mostly hear something from them only in extreme situations. As dooking is a sign of extreme happiness, hissing is a sign of extreme fear or anger. If your ferret is angry or scared, he will hiss at you and that is the sign which tells you to stay away!
4) When ferrets are young, they can get very excited easily. Then, a rare and amazing thing can happen. When two ferrets are playing, chasing each other, you can see that one ferret (or both) will wag its tail! This is a rare trick that only some ferrets do. So if your ferret does that, you are lucky!
5) Ferrets love to explore and if you let your ferret out in a new surrounding, you will probably hear dooking, but you will see one more thing. If you notice that your ferret is bigger, your eyes aren’t deceiving you. When entering some new space, ferrets tend to puff their fur to make themselves look bigger. The best way to notice that is to look at the tail. The tail will be a few times bigger and that is called a bottle brush tail.
6) The most uncommon ferret behavior which scares every ferret owner who doesn’t know about it is ferret death sleep. Sometimes, ferrets can sleep so deep, they look like they are dead. You can grab them by the legs, pick them up and nothing will happen. The only way to notice if your ferret is still alive is by carefully looking at their chest, because you will see they are breathing very slow. Many ferret owners have rushed with their ferrets to the hospital worrying about their health, only to see their ferret suddenly wake up.
About the Author:
Anja has two ferrets Frida and Yoda and a site called Friendly Ferret where she shares useful tips and content about ferrets, their health, training and nutrition. If you want to find out more about ferrets, feel free to visit her web site – Friendlyferret.com