Bourneville's treat time.. not quite a Ferret!

[Lazy-Ferret]

I have not been doing a lot on the cars lately, so not a lot to post about that, but some of you said you wanted more pictures and info on my little clan of furries, so I thought I would tell you about Bourneville..

Our Bourneville is 100% wild polecat, but has been handled from a very early age... Without going into too much info, he is ours officially on long term (forever) foster, as he was bred as part of a breeding program to be released back into the wild, only they cancelled the program while his mum was pregnant... It is actually illegal to keep a wild polecat with out the correct paperwork, so because of this, he is now neutered, and he still technically "belongs" to the place that bred him, as they have all the relevant documents and we just "look after" him for the rest of his natural life.

Because he is bred from wild Polecat parents, he does not have even the basic "domestication" in his genes, that ferrets have acquired over their life time of working with man, so he has been a lot harder to build a bond with... By that, I mean, I love him to bits, but getting him to return any form of interaction or affection has been a long slow slog.

To make things worse, unlike ferrets, when we got him, he would not respond to the "normal" treats ferrets go for, like ferret oil, or paste, no cooked meats at all, and even raw meats he would only take it if he was sure no one was going to try to molest him, it was on the floor, or in a bowl, with "us humans" a safe distance away and an escape route already planed. If the coast was not clear, he would just ignore it. He is also totally independent, so does not even have the desire to watch what the ferrets do, and become intrigued enough to try it himself, which is normally how the ferrets learn new things.

For the first couple of months, he was like a shadow, you might just see him as he slipped from the cover of the sofa to the cover of the Welsh Dresser, then out the flap into the garden, where he would slink from one shrub to the next. At the ferrets tea time, he would hide under the table until I had put the food down, then once he was satisfied I was not going to try and touch him, he would run out, grab a bit of raw chicken, and then scarper with all 4 legs slipping and sliding on the laminate floor to a safe and secluded place to eat it.

As time went on, he became more and more intertwined with Poppet and Topic, who were ferrets the same age as him, and arrived about the same time, playing with them in the garden, and when they played with us, he would sit back and watch from a safe distance. This was good as he would see them come over to us and play with out any detrimental effects, and would start to get a bit closer to us, and not hide as much, but trying to touch him was still a big no no.

Don't get me wrong, he did not bite at all, even if you picked him up, although as you got your hands on him, you would always feel his teeth letting you know that if he was not such a nice guy, you could have lost a limb or two. He just made it nearly impossible to actually catch him to pick him up, so doing things like nail clipping, or flea prevention were entertaining well thought out military operations where we would get him cornered somewhere we could get him from. Often this would involve surreptitiously putting a length of tubing the on the floor and when you went to grab him, he would run to the first safe place, the tube, and you would then cover both ends with your hands, pick it up, and tip him out. One quick way to annoy a polecat!!

Eventually he decided to try my chicken soup which they all have with their raw meat before bedtime, and became hooked on it, so at last, I had a "treat" I could use to bribe him, just not a very convenient one. I would make him a small bowl a couple of times a day, and get him to drink it while I held the bowl, and would gently stroke his back. One day, we found the "poundshop" were doing a 100% duck breast meat treat, for dogs, which looked very similar to the nearly impossible to find Webbox chicken fillets that nearly all the ferrets go nuts for. We got a couple of bags, cut them into smaller bits, and put them in the plastic treat box with their other treats. I then tried the ferrets with them, they were a hit with most of them, but for the first time ever, Bourneville showed and interest.. not just a sniff of the air, but a full on, stand at my legs, on just his hind legs and beg me for a bit, taking a small piece really gently from my fingers...

These were to be his downfall or so I though, as he was absolutely hooked on them, and would do anything for them. The problem is, as humans we often think we are the intelligent "trainers", when in fact it is us that is being "trained", and one day I realised I was so happy that he would come to me and climb up onto my lap and have a brief stroke in exchange for a treat, he had effectively trained me, as I would stop what ever I was doing, go to the treat box, and give him a treat when ever he came over and demanded one...

Now, as I mentioned earlier, Webbox do a chicken fillet, treat, which is very hard to find in the shops, and we had one ferret called Galaxy who would eat other treats if that was all there was, but actually went mad for the Webbox ones, and when we found out he was on his "last legs" with cancer, and only had a couple more months left, we went out of our way to find them for him. This meant buying them wholesale off the web, 30 bags at a time. These are 3 times the price of the "Poundshop" equivalent, but worth it to make his final days happy. Again, these are too big for a ferret, so I cut them into smaller pieces, and put them in the plastic treat box, along with all the other treats. If I ever need to do a head count, I can rattle the plastic box, and all 14 ferrets will arrive at my feet,and I then have to dig out the correct treat for the correct ferret.

When Galaxy passed on, we still had a lot of bags of "his" treats left, so I started giving them to any other ferret that asked... This was a mistake, as they also all went mad for them, and started to refuse any other treats, which also included Bourneville doing the same thing. They got to the stage they wouldn't touch the "poundshop" treats, which actually turned out to be a result, as they were becoming harder to get, and have now stopped selling them altogether, so don't tell the ferrets, but they sort of did us a favour there.

Bournevilles training (of me) was going very well, he would come into the living room when I made my morning cup of coffee, and tap me on the leg until I got up and got him a treat... at this time I would take 3 out of the box, put two in my pocket, and give him the other one. He would bounce off, eat it, and come back and ask (demand) for the next one, and very quickly learnt it was three, and no more, not even trying to get a forth. The same thing would happen in the afternoon, when I had a cup of tea, there would be Bourneville waiting on the floor near the treat box, and he would literally run back and forwards making it nearly impossible to get past him until I had given him a treat, and put two more in my pocket.

His timing is spot on, If I get busy working on the computer, and am so engrossed, I have not got round to making a drink, he comes and reminds me, tapping me on the leg, he then waits with me while the kettle boils, I make the drink, and then bring it back to the computer, where he then demands his treat. Over the months, the treat demanding has got more physical, he now climbs up onto my lap, and will actually let me give him a fuss as well. If I am very busy, and he comes back for his second or third treat, and I do not get around to getting it out of my pocket quick enough, he now actually goes into the pocket and helps himself...

Bourneville has come on in leaps and bounds, and while he will never be a cuddle ferret like Poppet, he is happy to let you have a fuss, as long as you say thank you with a treat, but boy does he play up if you try and sneak one with out payment.

So, today, I decided to try and get some pictures of the act, unfortunately most came out blurred, or he was too close to the camera, but here is is, making his presence felt, letting me know it is time for a break,



taking his first treat (big teeth),


Second treat (no fingers were lost),


Third Treat...
Sorry, no picture as he decided it was too much hassle, and waited until I was looking at the pictures I had taken, then shot up onto the sofa, and stole the treat straight out of my pocket... by the time I had the phone back on camera, I just got a blur of him disappearing...

[perelaar]

Great story, keep them coming!

I recognise the "who's training who" scenario from our dogs. I sometimes think they, especially the male, do things wrong in order to be rewarded with attention (training) and maybe a treat once they do it right...

[macabethiel]

Our 3 Chihuhuas love treats too especially dried chicken but it can get quite expensive.

A friend told us about making your own treats so we bought a basic Luvele food drier /desicator circa £45 on Amazon and now since 2015 make our own treats.

It has worked out quite well as we can cut the raw chicken to the right size for our dogs then we load about 5 tiers of the drier with mainly chicken but also sweet potato. We are on Economy 7 so we run the drier at night in the kitchen to keep costs down.

We buy our frozen chicken breasts or thighs in bulk usually a batch will last for about a month before we dry some more.

It will dry vegetables a swell as meat but we have never tried fish although the instructions state you can.

[Lazy-Ferret]

Cheers, the ferrets don't seem that keen on the dried stuff we have bought in the past, the Webbox stuff has glycerine in, so the meat is stil oily. Not sure how they do that.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[johnb5177]

Originally Posted by perelaar

Great story, keep them coming!

I recognise the "who's training who" scenario from our dogs. I sometimes think they, especially the male, do things wrong in order to be rewarded with attention (training) and maybe a treat once they do it right...

I realised after a while, that my Border Collie, Megan, was training me......after work, I would give her 2 chews from a box in a kitchen cupboard. She was told to wait patiently, give a hand (paw) shake, get the chews and away to her bed, then her evening meal after I had eaten........so......after less than a week, guess who is now just sitting patiently by the cupboard, waiting and would you believe.......grumbling about waiting.......I felt seriously trained.......

[Thomas61]

I do enjoy hearing about these mischievous little creatures.

If you have shopped on the internet for pet stuff then you probably have come across this site before but incase you have not here is the link. Used to use them alot and found them very good.

http://www.zooplus.co.uk/

[emjaybee]

He's gorgeous bloke. I'm a real sucker for your busyness, they're a right bunch of characters.

[terranosaurusdoug]

Yeh man they are ace, a laugh a minute I bet

[Lazy-Ferret]

Originally Posted by Thomas61

.... Used to use them alot and found them very good.

http://www.zooplus.co.uk/

Cheers, yes they are one of the sites we have ordered from.

Originally Posted by terranosaurusdoug

Yeh man they are ace, a laugh a minute I bet

I have to remind myself of that when they are playing chase at 5am, and for some reason, despite having all the downstairs, most of the upstairs, and a cat flap out to their court which is full of tubes and toys, their chase route still has to cut across my pillow...

[Blocky10]

Great thread. If you are going to strumpshaw this year, I may be lucky to meet them. And you obviously

[stevew]

when i was in my early teens about 20 years ago(time flys) there was a lot of mink in my area we used to trap them. my friends father was very good at trapping them and kept some alive to scent traps they never got very tame they would come out at feeding time which was always piglets on the top of there cage as they were pig farmers they even bred and the young were very confident around humans,still wouldn't trust them there a big sharp toothed beast!!!

[terranosaurusdoug]

Originally Posted by Lazy-Ferret

Cheers, yes they are one of the sites we have ordered from.




I have to remind myself of that when they are playing chase at 5am, and for some reason, despite having all the downstairs, most of the upstairs, and a cat flap out to their court which is full of tubes and toys, their chase route still has to cut across my pillow...

a sign of affection and trust, they obviously like being around you