More ferret toy ideas

A while ago, we blogged about inexpensive ways to create entertaining toys for your ferrets (to view the blog, click here). We have since come up with a few more ideas on how to create 'new' toys for your pet.

1) Long, low kitty litters (or similar) filled with water. Many ferrets LOVE to play with water! To make this toy more entertaining, add some of their favourite toys and watch them bob for their toys! This is also a superb summer toy for those hot days.

2) take a torn up dryer tube (this often happens once the tubes have been well played in by the ferrets), using wire cutters and duct tape, cut the tube into large pieces, tape off any sharp edges and reassemble the tube into new shapes


3) Wrap a dryer tube or 20 ft clear ferret play tunnel around an old cat tree, coffee table legs, chair or similar item to create a fun, inexpensive 'turbo tunnel' for the ferrets to run through.

4) Hollow plastic Easter eggs filled with beans, rice, dry noodles, bells or other noise-making items and taped shut, or simply left empty. Many ferrets love pushing these around with their noses, dragging them under their tummies and stashing them around the house.

5) Golf balls. They make a lot of noise when rolled across a hard floor, and this will make most ferrets do a happy dance. Many ferrets will happily roll these balls around and make a racket!

6) A cup or bowl filled with noise-making jingle cat toys or filled Easter eggs. Ferrets will go crazy when they up end the bowl and knock its contents all over the floor (and you know that they will!)

Penny Pinching Tips for Ferret Toys

There are a couple things that every ferret owners knows when it comes to ferret toys... 1) you can never have too many and 2) it generally does not take long for a ferret to get bored of its toys. For most people, buying a ferret a new toy every time their ferret gets bored of its old toys is not an option - doing so is costly and let's face it, there are only so many ferret-friendly toys to choose from! Here are some tips to keep your ferret happy without breaking the bank and filling your house with ferret toys:

• When your ferret gets bored a toy, take it away and wash it. Some people suggest washing it in vanilla or lemon water, but generally any non-toxic product that would change the smell of the toy is fine. Once the toy has a new smell, your ferret will think that it is a new toy!
• Try making sets of ferret toys, with each set containing a different variety and about three or four toys. When the ferret gets bored of one set, it goes in the closet and a new set is brought out.
• Cardboard boxes are great ferret entertainment. Once your ferret gets bored of the box, put in upside down or on its side and voila, a new toy! Once all angles have been exhausted, put some crinkly news or other paper in the box, add a ferret and a toy and watch the little critter go nuts! With one object you have just created 4 new toys!
  
• Worn out socks with jingle balls in their toes and knots around the top to keep the toy in are great for many ferrets - not only does the toy make noise, but it provides a toy for them to snuggle as well.
  
• Drier tubes, paper bags and jean legs are great fun for most ferrets to go tearing through, and they are generally cheap and easy to find.
• Bins filled with dirt, beans or rice which the ferret can dig through and (in the case of beans and rice) make noise with are inexpensive, reusable (for the ferret) and easy to make.

Ferret toys don't have to be fancy, they just have to be fun! If you are particularly creative and have any innovative new ferret toy ideas, feel free to add them!