Ferrets do smell a little musky and just like people some smell more than others. However, if they've been neutered then the general muskyness is no more than say a dog and perhap less and jills hardly smell. Deodorants are next to useless as you then get a lovely musky ferret smell (yes you do get used to it and can quite like it after a while) mixed in with a strange damp, artificial perfume smell. Yuck. Your best bet is to keep their cage clean and their bedding as this cuts down on the musk being rubbed back on to the ferrets.

We don't have loads of space in the house but we have enough for an indoor cage around 4x3x3 ft and an outdoor enclosure 5x2 ft with chicken wire. Do you think it's entirely necessary that they are in a shed? As ours is very old and there is very little light. The windows are boarded up as well!

Keeping them indoors or out is just a matter of peference, but from my experience ferrets do prefer to live outside, but they don't need to be in a shed. Our don't live in one. Many people keep them in rabbit hutch with a run attached. A big word of warning - DO NOT USE CHICKEN WIRE. This is far too flimsy and know of a friends ferrets who chewed their way out. Use 0.5" weld mesh. Whatever you use make sure it's really sturdy and they can't find any weak spots - or they will escape. In the winter just make sure they're dry with lots of warm bedding.

We are looking to buy/rescue 3 ferrets at about 8months- 1 year old, is this a good age as I don't think we can look after kits, we also intend on having them neutered to improve the smell and we generally don't want out Jill/s impregnated. I'm not sure of the recommended ratio of Jills to Hobs but we are hopefully getting two hobs and 1 Jill, we'd love to have more but we would run out of space and the food is pretty expensive too!

If you go to a rescue they will match you to the right ferret and make sure whoever you bring home get on with each other. If after you've brought them home you find you're having problems, rescue's will let you change them around. The age you mention or even older is best for first time owners - kits are a handful even up to a year old. I love older ferrets (from 3 years) as they're much calmer and aren't so manic whilst still being playful whilst you can really see their character. It's unlikely that ferrets from kits to about 2 years old will stay still for very long. If you rehome any of this years kits they will need to be neutered at a minimum of 6 months old - you will notice that from about 5 months the hobs will start to smell bad, but don't neuter any earlier as it's very bad for their health.

I am slightly worried that out other pets might cause a problem. We currently have 4 cats and a dog but this summer we're re-homing one of the cats, I have read guides saying that cats, dogs and ferrets can get on well but do you know from experience?

Keep all animal interactions supervised. I know people have got their ferrets and cats and dogs to get along, but noone takes chances - the ferrets will come off worse. Know the ferrets will bite your other pets in play and ferrets can bite hard. Generally cats will avoid ferrets.

I'm not too bothered that they may bite as we're probably getting ferrets on the brink of kit-hood but is it likely to become a permanent trait? Since they're rescued is it possible that they're more aggressive due to previous harsh treatment?

Once again, a good rescue shouldn't rehome a biter to you. Kits may well nip, but this just needs patience, gentle persistent correction and germelene!! See the section on my website on the new kits and Tsuki to know how hard kits might bite. She bit right through my husbands thumb and when ferrets bite for real they hang on and fair shredded out hands for about 4 months - this is fairly extreme, but just shows what bad or little handling from before we got her and a slightly rough temperment will do.

Older ferrets (from 1 year on) generally won't bite/nip at all. This is why we recommend older ferrets - many inexperienced people get discouraged and scared by this nipping behaviour. I believe ALL biters can come round unless there's a physical psychological reason - it just depends upon your persistance and time (and pain threshold).

Ferrets don't generally bite - it's like saying all dogs are aggresive and all cats are aloof. Just like puppies ferrets kits learn with their teeth - they're just pin sharp on our soft skin. Let get the myth out of the way - ferrets don't usually bite, but ferrets may nip - they need to be taught manners. It's all about upbringing. If a dog had no training or was abused that might also be aggressive and bite out of fear. It's all the same.

I think older ferrets realise that you are giving them a great new home especially if they've been abused and give back the care ten fold.

We will definitely buy ferret hammocks and loads of toys, I know that they're very playful. How many hours a day do they sleep and at what intervals in any?

Older ferrets will sleep a bit more than younger ones, but generally about 22 hours of the day is sleep!!! They like to sleep during the day and night and are more active in the morning and early evening. Ours will poop out after 45 mins of hard play. Our oldest ferret is Willow who is coming up to 7 and she still loves playing and ragging our 3 year old Bingo.

We are largely concerned with pet sitting. In March we're going on holiday for 11 days to Mexico. We have a sitter for the dog and someone usually comes in for the cats, can you recommend any sitters, if you know of any could you please give me the website or email address. Preferably in London.

Sorry I don't live in London so have no idea about ferret sitters there. I suggest joining a UK ferret discussion list and asking on there - people often volunteer. Surely the cat/dog sitter would look after the ferrets too? Some catteries may take in ferrets as boarders. Ferret welfares generally will board ferrets too.

Well, that's pretty much everything, oh, any recommendations on the colours? :)

Whatever takes your fancy!

Hope this clears up any doubts. One last thing make sure you find a ferret knowledgeable vet - this piece of info will serve you well in the long run. Don't get a vet who treats ferrets like cats.

How do we introduce new ferrets to each other?

I'm probably the worst person to ask about ferret introductions as I HATE them. I do know that some people put a new ferret in and after a bit of wrestling things settle down after about an hour, unfortunately our experiences haven't been like that. Our fererts seem to have behavioural problems with regards to new comers.

So the best case scenario is that the ferrets will wrestle and everything settles down very quickly. Our experinces seem to include all out war. I don't believe washing them, putting perfume or bitter tasting stuff or ferretone on their necks makes any long term difference to them settling. Ferrets aren't that stupid that they'll be fooled for very long.

All I can say is that wrestling, fighting, chasing, pooing and poofing seem to be part of our introductions. If one of the ferrets is very aggressive, bites and shakes another then do split that up. Give the aggressor a timeout in a carry cage and a firm no - you've got to show them what is acceptible behaviour. Also try each ferret separately with the new one if they gang up on him and only when you think they've accepted him singly, try both girls together with the new one. And just try little and often and try and make them play together.

When we added Mojo we knew that Hershey and Tsuki weren't going to be easy and it took about 3.5 weeks of trying them together for between 30-50 mins a night for them to settle and infact, you'll see from my website we had to give a girl kit back as they wouldn't accept her, but they now love Mojo and love playing with him. So good luck.

How much did your ferret home cost to make?

With regards to the ferrets home, wood is quite expensive and know a lot of ferret keepers just buy a regular shed and make changes to that because it works out cheaper sometimes. Our cage is great as it fits into a specific space in our garden and blends in nicely but in wood, screws, new tools, mesh, hinges, wood stain, acrylic, roof felting, guttering at the back of the roof etc it came to a lot, probably about £400 +.

HELP! My ferrets won't use their litter pan.

Litter training...they're little b*ggers aren't they? You don't say whether in their cage or inside the house. In both cases, make sure the pan is large enough and never use a corner pan - ferrets rarely use these. In the cage, we use a garden potting pan for a poo pan which is just the right size for 3-4 ferrets. Try different litter this can make a difference. If they poo outside the pan clean the area really well and until they've got hte idea of using the pan, put an object in the way of where they're pooing like a brick. Spike the poo pan with ferret poo to let them know that this is the proper place to go. Once they're in the habit they should consistently go in the pan.

Don't let the ferrets have run of the house until they use a pan in the cage. I've found that ferrets like to snorkle in paper pellet litter but once the novelty wears off they should ignore it and if you see a ferret backing up in the wrong corner, you just have to grab it and place it in the poo pan. After a while they should get the idea. If they go willlingly to the poo pan, give them lots of praise and maybe a treat. We still find that we have about 88% hit rate in the house, and the rest of the time they poo just infront of the pan. Go figure. We occasionally find the odd 'present' in a corner somewhere, but this is fairly rare. Kits have less of a hit rate but this should improve as they get older.