Well, they say disasters come in 3s. So we had a plumbing disaster which wrecked the house, I spent 2 weeks suffering from some strange gastric virus and then...Mojo develops a taste for eating his string toys. Oh yes. We cleaned out their court last weekend and found some mucky looking chewed up stuff - we could work out what it was and just ignored it. The day after Mojo was really depressed and wouldn't eat or take even ferretone - something was obviously wrong and we kept him in overnight - my mind already thinking of blockages. In the morning he still wouldn't really eat anything, but he had passed a bit of string toy. So presumably the stuff outside was regurgitated string toy - nice.
He did pick up a little during the day, but was still very lethargic and was having diahorrea. We took him to the vets late afternoon to be checked up, hoping against hope that he wasn't going to need surgery. The vet did a thorough examination and it looked like he'd passed all the string, but was suffering from inflamed guts as an after effect. So lucky for all of us, just an anti-inflammatory injection and the all clear. A day later and Mojo expressed his joy at life by bouncing manically! We spent an hour and a half at the vets and everyone was cooing over Mojo saying how gorgeous he was....but STUPID I had to add.
27 December 2007
Our vet is very skilled and did a lovely neat job with Mojo's castration and only a few days later we're all relieved that Mojo is no longer attached to Hershey and Tsuki's necks - and he's much calmer not being prone to his hormones making him feel loopy. They all had a lovely Xmas and enjoyed their pressies of a new bed, toys and treats. To replace Mojo's nuts, we gave him two new jingle balls! Tony bathed him for the first time today which he took very well and hopefully soon he'll start smelling much more pleasant too.
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Hershey and Mojo investigate
their Xmas pressie. |
So what's in there? |
Mojo delves in feet first. |
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Tsuki's no shrinking violet
when it comes to investigation. |
Aha...so that's what'
in there? |
Tsuki attacks the Xmas
dangly jiggly thingy. |
For the last week and half Mojo has been firmly attached to the back of Hershey's neck and Hershey is looking pretty fed up with it. Mojo is also quite smelly so although we were hoping to leave it until January, he's booked in with out vets for a castration tomorrow. I will let you know how he gets on.
11 November 2007
You know what they say about children...they grow up so fast, and this is true of Mojo. He's growing in an adult coat and starting to change from a ball of fluff into a sleek shiney handsome ferret. He, however, has also got a lot of puppy fat/winter weight and has gained the nickname of dumpling! He's really quite chubby and he's quite a stumpy little boy which doesn't help matters. He's also starting to grow a mask and as you can see from the newest photos there is now a little triangle of white in the middle of his forehead. Addendum: the newest photos show his full white winter mask.
17 October 2007
Well, Mojo has well and truely settled in. He's made a huge difference to the characters of Tsuki and Hershey and they both love to play with him. Initially we got him for Tsuki to play with, as Hershey had stopped playing so much, but Mojo makes Hershey play and they love running around and wrestling. Tsuki enjoys chase games with Mojo and last Saturday all 3 were running like maniacs through all the tubes in ferret room. Amazing the difference one ferret can make.
24 September 2007
What a week! Tony noticed the Saturday before last that Mojo had a touch of diahorrea which he got over very quickly. However, whatever he had was passed onto Hershey, Bingo and Casper. It made them pretty low and Casper being older got this infection really bad. We took him to the vets on Saturday and she said it could be e-coli so they are all being treated with antibiotics and all but Casper have recovered. It is possible that Mojo brought a virus with him from the rescue centre. Casper was laid really low by this bug and wouldn't eat or drink on his own - so was seriously sick. We've been nursing him on his own and slowly he's recovering, but he's still being hand-fed.
On the plus side Mojo has settled well with Tsuki and Hershey and they are starting to play with him much better. Before it was still a slightly uncomfortable truce. I'm glad that Tsuki is playing with him especially as we got him to keep her company and there's no doubt that Mojo is missing Mia just as we are. In the back of our minds we are thinking of trying another ferret...
17 September 2007
Yesterday after several long full days of carpentry and lots of hard work, Tony finished making the extension to the ferret home - he's made a veritable palace. It's perhaps larger than it might need to be as we thought one side would house 4 ferrets, but now we've got 3 on each side and it's a really good size. The extenstion is an extra 1.1 metres, bring the total ferret home length to a whopping 3.6 metres. We still have the downstairs area which still needs to be finalised and it's a really long being the complete length of the whole court which must be about 3 metres or so - the ferrets could really dash around in there and put in lots of toys. It also means that in the winter when we stop using the downstairs area their upper cage space isn't cramped whatsoever. Before Tsuki and Hershey really needed the downstairs area as being quite active their main cage area was quite limited for movement.
 A very proud Tony with the completed new xtension to the ferret home and hopefully very happy ferretsThe Bingo group although having a very comfortable cage was also a bit limited on space and couldn't run or wrestle without bumping into the walls. It was funny yesterday after Tony sorted their side of the cage out. The furniture was the same just more space around everything. The ferrets came out as normal and did a set number of paces to the end of their cage…except there was now a little extra. They'd stop and sniff the air looking around themselves and look like they were saying…"Okay this all looks the same, but I know something's changed…but what…okay…that back wall is further away…what's happened". After walking around the space you could see that they'd twigged that there was more space…but just couldn't work out how it'd happened. That's what comes of sleeping too much!!!
Tony finally finished the Tsuki side at about 6pm. There was so much to do - thinking about ramps, best position for their sleep hutch etc, food bowls, barriers etc. We put all three in - they had a good ol' rummage. Hershey is a little nervous and with all the change and disturbance over the last week or so - I don't think he knew what to make of it all. They've got so much more space - a towel hammock at the back, peekaboo hammock at the front in the new bit, the babies sleep box as a new place to hide in or sleep, a cheese hidey, tubes and the hutch is lower so they can crawl to the roof and then jump into the towel hammock.
This morning it looked like Mojo had spent the night in the hutch with Tsuki and Hershey which is a great sign. He's also a little quieter with them and not dragging them all over the place. It's still a bit sad, cos if Mia was here he would be wrestling with her - we'll just have to give him extra cuddles.
16 September 2007
I'm just soooo sad. We gave Mia back yesterday. I really didn't think I'd miss her too much, but I just feel like there's an empty gap…which there is!
Last week Mojo who has become a boisterous little boy started to play quite nicely with Tsuki and Hershey in between bouts of wrestling and dragging. The main thing was that he stood up for himself and we felt quite confident that no harm would come to him if left with them.
However, little Mia still spent most of her time hiding from them and being attacked. Sometimes there was a little play with Hershey, and Tsuki only played with her when we covered her in ferretone and confused her for a bit. After a while Tsuki realised it was Mia and attacked her again and then Hershey would go over to help Tsuki. Really it wasn't fair on Mia, although if pushed she would stand up for herself, but she was getting shy of the two big thugs so we thought it was best she went back.
She was a sweet gentle little girl and a great playmate for Mojo and I hope she gets a great home.
We put Mojo in with Tsuki and Hershey's cage and they settled really well - it seems like without Mia any tension has slipped away. For the first night he was quite excited and boisterous and Hershey hid from him as he gets ragged quite a bit, but Mojo seems to be firm friends with Tsuki…and that was the point of the exercise to find someone Tsuki would like and play with.
2 September 2007
I think we're wearing Tsuki and Hershey down - their fighting isn't quite so nasty. This week, there has been a big improvement in Hershey's behaviour towards the babies and today I think Mojo thinks Hershey is his new best friend, but Hershey's not sure - he's become a wrestling partner - but they have all started to play together in between the fighting.
Tsuki is another matter - she's always persistant and petulant. But by the end of a session there's an uneasy truce and I feel we'll get there eventually although it will take longer with her. Strange as when they were introduced at first she wasn't bothering the babies and Hershey was, but now their roles have reversed.
28 August 2007
Well we've decided to try Tsuki and Hershey separately with the babies as they were ganging up on the babies. Results so far are a little mixed. Initially Hershey was really rough and slowly he seems a little more resigned to the babies, but now Tsuki who initially wasn't so bad with the babies has reverted to type and is quite nasty with them and has gone back to chowing down on us occasionally too.
The babies have grown up and awful lot in only one week and can stand up for themselves better, are more aware and can run faster which is a good thing when Tsuki is just looking for a fight.
Tony thinks they will integrate but maybe when the babies have grown up a little more and can fight back better. When we tried introducing Bingo to them, Hershey was very meek and Tsuki would pick a nasty fight but come off worse. Bingo would settle down looking like he just wanted to get away from them and Tsuki would leave him alone, but very occasionally sneek out to give him a little nip. So hopefully, when the babies can defend themselves better she might give in.
18 August 2007
We must be suckers-for-punishment…just as all the ferrets seem settled and we've mostly got Tsuki to stop biting us…we go ahead and get more ferrets. We must be mad. Why do it…especially when we dismally failed to get the Bingo group to mix with Tsuki and Hershey?
 Welcome to Mojo (left) & Mia (right)
Well, for exactly the same reasons we felt that Bingo should have some friends…and still does really…we now feel Tsuki especially needs some friends. Now that Tsuki and Hershey have grown up…Hershey is far more laid back than Tsuki and he doesn't always want to play, chase and wrestle the mad little nutter. She just runs around looking to get into mischief and for someone to play with. Sometimes when Hershey doesn't want to play she will bite his ears hard and drag him…saying 'come on, play with me'. And all Hershey wants is a quieter life.
So we went off to a ferret rescue centre to see if they would accept a new friend. The chap who ran the centre tried a few different ferrets and knowing that Tsuki and Hershey may well be difficult we were surprised to see that they didn't seem overly bothered by some little dark poley babies. Being babies they were super cute and I wanted a hob and Tony wanted a jill, and so deciding that they would be better off together we chose both. Two dark poley kits at 9 weeks old.
We were feeling quite positive and I had said "If they don't all go home in the same carrier…then they won't come home at all." And they did all come home in the same carrier without a problem and stayed over night in the same cage. The babies were so excited and were clambering all over Hershey in his hammock and he was being very tolerant. To be fair Tsuki just didn't know quite what to make of the whole situation but she was being good.
However, come the morning with babies wrestling everywhere Tsuki and Hershey decided enough was enough and started to be very rough with the babies. For their safety especially as we needed to go to work the next day and obviously couldn't keep our eye on them - we separated the two groups.
I was really upset and they're so cute and I don't want to give them back. We phoned the ferret rescue man to ask his advice and he said it was early days and gave us a few tips on making the integration go more smoothly.
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