Why Ferrets Steal Items

The phrase ferret has its origins in Latin and interprets to minimal thief. With that tidbit of awareness, it should not surprise you that ferrets like to steal matters and hoard them.

My ferrets take nearly anything they can drag. I’ve seen my tiny, a single pound woman attempt to carry off the dog’s sterilized bone the bone weighs additional than she does. (The only cause she did not succeed is that the puppy noticed her dragging the bone across the place and intervened.) They have appropriated my sneakers, my wrist brace, and stuffed toys. They have snatched bookmarks, balls, and food items dishes. They have pilfered personal computer mice, tissues, and socks. They have eradicated apples, potatoes, and staple removers. If they can pirate an product, they will.

So, just after my ferrets receive an object of wish, they hoard it. Just about every stolen thing ends up in the exact same position. After I thoroughly clean, they might relocate their stash, but there is certainly generally only one particular cache at a time. I have uncovered the cache less than their cage. A person time the stash was driving the television and a person time they truly put almost everything inside one particular of my husband’s speakers. At present, my babies like to relocate objects to inside their Tower of Enjoyable, a tube that twists up and down. The fuzzies like to slide down the slopes of the Tower of Entertaining, so it can be a small peculiar that they block their entertaining sliding route with toys. Nevertheless, they do.

Why?

Given that I do not converse ferret, and my ferrets will not talk human, I can only guess based on their pure behaviors in the wild. Polecats (who our domesticated ferrets have been domesticated from) are carnivores. They are hunters. They eliminate factors more compact than themselves (commonly smaller, but I’ve viewed films of ferrets killing things larger than they are). So, a ferret kills a mouse and eats it. When it really is finished, it will hide the leftovers. If a ferret kills an animal that is much too huge to eat in just one sitting, the ferret will stash the corpse to finish later on. And, in all of these occasions, ferrets are making an attempt to protect against other animals from gaining their spoils.

I believe which is probably the very best rationalization for why ferrets steal, but I have a single other assumed. Usually, I locate ferrets asleep amidst their stolen treasures. Normally, when they snooze in their cache, the merchandise are delicate and squishy, like little stuffed toys and other fluffy matters. So, my second speculation is that ferrets like to build cozy beds.