Any advice on baths, ears, and nail-clipping?
Frequent bathing can tend to dry out a ferrets skin. In addition, to compensate, the ferret will secrete oils that contribute to his smell. We recommend only bathing a ferret once every four to six months. Ears should be checked at the vets for ear mites, and cleaned once a month. Your vet can tell you how to safely clean them. Nails should be trimmed at least once every other week. Cut the nail just longer than the pink line inside it. Be very careful not to cut that, since the ferret will start bleeding and decide that claw clipping is a very bad thing. To hold the ferrets attention while clipping, try putting a few drops of linatone on the ferrets belly, and direct the ferret to it.
First of all, unless your ferret goes snorkeling in butterscotch pudding or has a bad case of fleas, you really don’t need to bathe her very often at all. It doesn’t affect the odor much; in fact, many ferrets smell worse for a few days following a bath. The best thing you can do to control your ferret’s scent is to change her bedding every few days and keep the litter pans clean. The problem with frequent bathing is that it can cause dry skin, especially in winter. There’s nothing wrong with bathing your ferret only once a year. Once a month should be okay, but switch to less often if you have problems with dry skin. Most ferrets don’t seem to mind baths much. Some ferrets enjoy a bath quite a bit, swimming around in the tub and diving for the drain plug.
