Advice? Ferrets and rats

[bubonicapple]

If this is on the wrong board, whoop guess my face is red...

I was just trolling Craigslist, windowshopping, really, and I came across an ad in a neighbouring city advertising two boy rats to a good home, cage included. I peeked at the ad then kept going back through the pages, and saw these two boys had not been advertised once...not twice...but three times, the tone of the ad gradually getting less and less fussy. The boys started out $50 for the pair and a cage - now down to free. My first thought was, oh hell, they're going to get taken in as snake food (call me a hypocrite altogether now, as I dangle mice burritos over Chaplin's head).

So, I drop the guy a line - I sent the e-mail not two seconds ago. The most recent ad for this pair was put up sometime this morning. I told him essentially my door is open, I can make the trip no problem, I'd give them a good home, but now, after the fact, I have to stop and think. Witness me barrel headlong into something once more! Isn't that how I ended up in Vancouver in the first place? My fuzzbutts are probably the most thought-out thing I've done since I was four and hesitated before jamming a fork into an electrical socket.

LONG STORY SHORT (I ramble! Spare me!): Is it possible for two bashful (so the ad says) boy rats to coexist with two ferrets of varying levels of insanity, depending on the cosmic positioning of Neptune or whatever it is these two punks live by? I wouldn't ever be stupid enough to let the rats and ferrets out at the same time, EVER, but Chaplin and Lucy are kings of the coop. Am I doing either pair a disservice? What turned into me figuring I was doing a good thing by giving two poor boys a home (rats, I have no experience with by the way) potentially has now become me stammering through an excuse to my lady and potential bane to my ferrets or the rats themselves.

...halp

[nwheather]

I don't have much experience with rats, but I have heard it is possible. You're not a hypocrite in my book. People keep rodents as pets, & have feeder rodents (usually pre-dead, as I call em) for their ferrets. It's nature for them to eat whole prey.
I know there are some here with both weasel & rodent, hopefully they will give you more insight than I can. =)

[josiesmom]

Thre are some videos on youtube attesting to ferrets and rats "getting along" BUT I wonderif those ferrets have been eating a species specific diet?

It isn't much of a jump from mouse to rat on the dietary scale. they smell similar, move similar and apparently are quite similar in taste ( although mice are more nutritious).

Personally, I'd avoid it. The ferrets will smell the rats and think "food!" They may even go nuts trying to gain access to the rat's cage. You don't want your ferrets focused only on how to get to the rats when you are trying to play with them.

The rats will smell the ferrets and think "Flee, run, hide!" and this can put them in a state of hyper vigilance. You wouldn't want the rats to be constantly agitated and wondering when they'll get eaten.

I'd pass and just tell yourself you've done a compassionate thing by informing the rat owners what possible fate awaits their supposedly "cherished" pets; as well as you cannot save them all. It isn't possible.

Rats by themselves, I hear, make great pets, they are intelligent, can be friendly, interactive and nice companions -but I'd no more house a rat with a cat, a rat terrier, or a ferret than I would house one with a snake! It just isn't fair to the rat! They KNOW they are prey for these animals and eventuallysomething will happen that these other animals, no matter how well behaved, will see the rat as prey too.

Now if your intent is to train your ferrets how to capture and eat rats- that's another story.

Often times its best not to even read craigslist! ( Although that's where I found Faylene & Fozzy)

Yep, you have decisions to make. Good luck in which ever you decide!

Cheers,
Kim

[Heather]

I would love to say you're safe ...but....my guys love rats. They've hunted and killed rats. Not pretty, which is why they're fed ratcicles but even my tiny marshals boy was in on it. There is a trigger, that seems to go off...I don't know if it's the smell, which the males do or the movement but a ferret is hardwired to hunt. My guys hunt mice all the time (these are ones that think it's safe to be in my home...are they ever mistaken) I have 13 fuzzies in house right now...the only one that doesn't hunt is a little blind girl of 9 or 10 yrs old. The sound of a cornered rat or mouse drives them to a frenzy. I'm sorry, this is a little grosse but it's a fact. My guys were only allowed to hunt rats twice, the first time it was quick and easy (juveniles). The second time the rats were full grown, it was awful and now my supplier offs them first at my request.
I'm sure it's possible to work out but I've no idea how especially after watching these boys and girls hunt. It's the ultimate stimulation for your ferret.
Sorry, I guess I haven't helped much but I thought you should at least have what I discovered.
Ciao

[bubonicapple]

Ahahaha, too late... I didn't have access to the forum the past day, weighed the risks, and one of the rats is coming home with me. He's too aggressive to be housed with other rats, but gentle with people; since the ferrets are forbidden from the bedroom, I'm setting his camp up there.

Oops. Impulsive GOOO!