Hi there!
So rather than a blog post this is more a PSA for those new to ferrets. It’s spring, days are getting longer and hotter, ferrets are getting ready to pop and our outdoors babies are changing their coats and dropping winter weight.
First Don’t be worried if your ferret has a really patchy, scrappy looking coat. It is totally normal for them to go, as I call it, Tatty Teddy during a shed. Egs shed this spring looked so terrible I was literally checking for skin problems everyday until she turned into a lovely pewter grey. Nina is currently shedding undercoat like I’ve never seen before. It Was a very cold winter so there’s a lot of extra coat there now lol this can be as fast as overnight or take as long as a few weeks to finish. Also, don’t be worried about changes in coat colours. In our ferret gallery page we have pics of Cara going from blue silver to black to paler silver to white over the years, these changes tend to happen in the seasonal changes.
There is also something called Rat Tail that can start at this time of year, though it is much more common in the summer. Oils cause little blockages on the tail resulting in the hair falling out. It doesn’t hurt them, and it grows back in at the next shed. Glitch had terrible stud tail last year, worst I’ve ever seen! Totally bald, then it came back in in the autumn and she had the most luscious tail ever, a beautiful white plumb. Clearly making up for the summer rat tail lol
Second, they do drop weight. They go from fat butterballs to long lean ferrets, as long as they have plenty of muscle tone and they aren’t to skinny they will be fine. Along with this weight loss it is normal for them to go a little off their food. They don’t need as much to keep warm and like when we’re on a diet to lose weight they don’t need to eat as much. If you do worry that they are underweight get a check with a ferret savy vet. Be sure the vet is ferret savy though, in sp. that this kind of seasonal change doesn’t happen this can be a symptom of a host of problems, especially when seen with coat changes so an inexperienced vet may be concerned when there is nothing wrong, which certainly wouldn’t help to clear your mind.
Bottom line: unless you are seeing bald patches, skin irritation (red, spots, scabs or flaky skin) or they become underweight don’t worry about the changes you are seeing at this time of year. They’re just getting their beach bodies sorted lol
Until next time x