Different Breeds Of Ferrets You Can Bring Home

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Domestic Ferret Breeds:
The Petting Challenge:
The Body Types:
Spend your time qualitatively with the ferret:

A ferret is a polecat that you can domesticate and keep as a pet in your home. The ferret breed comes in various types that are strikingly different in the composition of colors, not more so by sizes.

The ferrets are of two varieties viz. wild and domestic. Black-footed ferrets are the only ferrets which fall under the wild variety. They are nocturnal and live on smaller creatures like prairie dogs. The domestic varieties are very affectionate and do all the things to draw the attention of the owners so that they get what they need.

Image by Екатерина Гусева from Pixabay

The domestic ferrets are of European origin. The male ferrets of the domestic varieties weigh around 3.5 pounds while their female counterparts 2.5 pounds. You can keep these ferrets as they are very agile and skilled in hunting like the black-footed ferrets. They will explore the surroundings and keep your house safe from pests.

Domestic Ferret Breeds:

These breeds can be broadly classified as follows:

Albino: It is characterized by a white fur coat, pink nose and pink to red eyes.

Image by Larry White from Pixabay

Black Sable: It is black from nose to tail with an undercoat of white to cream.

Black Sable Mitt: This ferret breed differs from Black Sable because of white color in two-thirds of the four legs from the toes.

Regular Sable: It is brown with an undercoat of cream to light brown.

Regular Sable Mitt: It looks like a Regular Sable ferret except for four white feet (mitts).

Blaze: This ferret breed is characterized by a white stripe running from the face between the eyes to the back of the neck. The fur may be of any color.

Champagne: It has an outer coat of milk-chocolate-brown color with a white undercoat and a light golden abdomen and pink to beige eyes.

Chocolate: Chocolate ferret has a brown outer coat with dark brown to red tail, legs and mask. The eyes are red or black, the nose color pink to brown and the undercoat is wheat-colored.

Chocolate Mitt: This breed differs from the Chocolate ferret because of four mitts.

Cinnamon: It has reddish-brown guard hairs, dark legs, pink nose and black eyes.

Cinnamon Mitt: It differs from Cinnamon ferret due to its four mitts.

Dalmatian: It has a white fur coat with black spots on the back, pink nose and red eyes.
Heavy Silver: It has a combination of deep gray and black furs, pink or black or mottled nose. It also has blotch around eyes instead of the differently-colored mask on the face and shiny white feet. This breed is also called Pewter.

Panda: This ferret breed bears white hairs on nose, head and shoulders. It has also a white underside, white tail-tip, white mitts and pink nose.
Light Pattern: It has dark hairs all over the body in addition to a white coat. It has a pink to black nose and red eyes.
Medium Pattern: It is like Light Pattern ferret except for the dark hairs being even darker.

Siamese: It has a V-shaped mask on its face apart from having dark brown legs, tail and underbelly. The color of the nose is pink or beige.
Siamese Mitt: This ferret breed has the same features as a Siamese ferret except for having four mitts.

Striped White: This breed has a white stripe along its backbone that sometimes even extend up to the end of the tail. Its nose is pink or black and eyes pink or red.
White with Dark Eyes: This ferret has black or dark eyes and a white fur coat apart from a pink nose.

The Petting Challenge:

Like we humans are different from person to person, the ferrets also have distinct personalities. There are some common traits but every ferret is different. As the ferrets are very cute and fun-loving, you must modify your personality if necessary.

You should make sure that you would be compatible with the ferret before taking it up as a pet.

Please go through the following points that indicate the typical behavior of a ferret to be confident that you would be able to pet a ferret properly:

I am happy doing mischievous jobs. I am persistent with respect to this and I simply keep on doing this until I get your attention, your affection and your involvement.
I am a jovial by nature and I will make noise making noise, emit odors and create mess to show my presence.
I have a personality. As I am spending my time with you, I also expect that you will spend time with me. You should not go out of your house leaving me alone. You should plan your vacations and business trips in such a way that do not feel bad and lonely.
Do you have the guts to allocate a budget for me and spend that amount judiciously to make me comfortable? You will have to adjust your home, routine and also outlook about the world to pet me.
I don’t love to sit idle. I do solve puzzles, explore the world and do innovative things to satisfy me. Do not block my instincts. Co-operate with me and discover ways to make us acceptable to each other.

The Body Types:

The ferrets adhere to two body types:

Whippet: This body type bears a long and slender look.
Bulldog: This body type is not so tall and long as the Whippet. But it is more block-shaped in comparison to the Whippet.

Spend your time qualitatively with the ferret:

Your ferret does not seek too much attention. It sleeps for a long time daily. So, you do not need to pay as much attention it. Buy you have to spend a quality time with it. In fact, a minimum of an hour a day is sufficient to keep it happy. When it is awake, it expects to be with you. The various quality time activities are:

Playing:

The ferret is very energetic and extrovert. It loves playing, particularly hide-and-seek, wrestling with fellow ferrets and running through tubes.

Grooming:

Grooming is an important activity and needed to be done regularly. Ferret likes brushing and bathing. You need to procure the materials for grooming your ferret.