Ferrets display a wide variety of behaviours. From pouncing and digging to the famous ‘weasel war dance’ this blog post will run through some of the most common ferret behaviours and why they do them!
I have organised these behaviours into 8 separate categories.
Playful Behaviours
War dancing
Also referred to as the ‘weasel war dance’. It’s a series of jumps, hops, twists and dooking which normally result in invitations to play, chase or capture a toy. Ferrets will war dance at you or other ferrets, it’s a sign they’re very excited! In the wild, ferrets war dance to confuse their prey or other predatory species.
Chasing
Ferrets will chase each other or you, they may also invite you to chase them in return. Chasing followed with positive behaviours such as jumping, dooking or war dancing is one of the many ways they play.
Wrestling
Ferrets will often wrestle with each other. A lot of people may confuse wrestling with fighting or dominance behaviours. But wrestling when engaged with other positive behaviours is another form of ferret play. Ferrets may pounce, jump, bite or roll around with each other. Wrestling is normally followed by dooking, war dancing, or chasing.
Digging
It’s a natural behaviour for ferrets and is a great form of enrichment. Ferrets may dig at objects, carpet/flooring or places they’re not supposed to (like their litter boxes). To combat this, you can offer your ferrets a dig box full of uncooked rice, or a ball pit to dig in. Ferrets will sometimes fully submerge their heads or bodies in dig boxes. Digging is a great way for them to remain engaged, and entertained and file down their nails.
Tail wagging
Similar to dogs, when playing — some ferrets will wag their tails to show they are excited. Ferrets with stronger personalities will be more likely to wag their tails.
Here are a few video examples of ferrets engaging in playful behaviours:
Dominance Behaviours
Bum sniffing
Ferrets will sniff each other’s bums as a means of communication or as a greeting. But they will primarily sniff bums as a sign of asserting dominance. This isn’t usually a means of concern. By bum sniffing, the ferrets can tell if one another is familiar and establish a dominant or submissive social status within their group.
Chasing & Stalking
These behaviours are seen in aggressive-dominant ferrets. The dominant ferret will usually stalk or continuously chase other ferrets into corners before lunging or biting. This type of chasing should not be confused with a play chase. The differentiating factor for dominance chasing and stalking is that the dominant ferret will not allow the other ferret(s) to distance themselves or hide. There will also be signs of vocal distress from both sides and/or hissing.
Alligator roll
This is often seen in dominance wrestling or when playful rough-housing elevates too abruptly. Ferrets will pin another ferret, bite their necks or scruffs and flip them over. Sometimes the ferrets may roll in this position 3—4 times, giving it the name ‘alligator roll’. If ferrets are biting the front-throat areas of the neck during this, are making alarming sounds, drawing blood or one of them pees or poos itself they should be separated immediately.
With dominance behaviours, one of the biggest questions people have is ‘Are my ferrets fighting or playing?’.
Here’s a YouTube video discussing and showing the differences.
Frightened Behaviours
Fleeing
Ferrets flee when they are scared, startled or frightened. Fleeing is rather simple. The ferret will run and hide. If you approach a fleeing ferret, they will likely try to run away or may fear bite you.
Hiding
Frightened ferrets may hide away from people or other ferrets. They will curl up to make themselves as small and discreet as possible, often pushing themselves into small or tight spaces out of sight.
Biting
Frightened ferrets may fear bite, this will be very different to a gentle play bite or nip. Ferrets that are scared will normally bite and latch onto your skin, 9/10 drawing blood.
Here are a few video examples of frightened ferrets:
Scared rescue ferret (examples of vocalisations and frightened behaviours/biting)
Generally anxious ferret
Grooming Behaviours
Grooming themselves
Ferrets will groom themselves by scratching, licking and biting their coats (much like cats). This will aid them in removing any loose fur, debris, or oil build-up. Ferrets are rather clean animals and will groom themselves and each other multiple times per day.
Grooming you
Ferrets that are heavily bonded to you may also enjoy helping you groom. This means they will lick and nibble you and may snuffle/nuzzle into your hair, and attempt to clean your ears, fingers arms or beards (if you have facial hair). This is a big compliment from a ferret — they groom you because they love you!
Here are a few video examples of ferret grooming:
Grooming themself
Grooming each other
Ferret grooming their owner
Potty Behaviours
Scooting into corners
Ferrets can be seen backing up into corners to do their ferrety business. When a ferret looks for a corner and starts to back up, they are going to potty. This is because in the wild, ferrets who poo in the open may get snatched up by birds, but, a ferret who has backed up into a corner is still able to defend itself at any moment.
Protest Pooping
This is a behaviour that only some ferrets do. Despite the stigma of ferrets being smelly or unclean — they are incredibly clean animals. This means if the litter box is too soiled for their liking, or you have done something to displease them. Some ferrets will ‘fight back’ or alert you to change their litter box by pooping in open, unpredictable or very inconvenient (for you) places on purpose. Many ferrents have called this protest pooping, some ferrets may even stare at you directly while they protest poo.
Eating & Drinking Behaviours
Dunking heads into water bowls
Some ferrets can be seen dunking or fully submerging their heads into their water bowls with open mouths. This can leave quite a mess as ferrets spill and flick their water around. In the wild, ferrets will dunk their heads in rivers and streams to find food sources or to cool down. Domesticated ferrets may still have an urge to do the same in their water bowls (or they might just be having fun splashing around in the water!)
Digging in food bowls
As previously mentioned, ferrets love to dig! If you don’t provide appropriate enrichment allowing ferrets to exercise their digging desires, they may reach for the next best thing. Which will be digging at their food bowls or even litter boxes.
Stashing food
Stashing is one of the most common ferret behaviours (more about stashing generally will be below). But stashing food in particular is normally reserved for certain ferrets. There can be many reasons ferrets stash food:
- They may just be super lazy and want to hide some food in an easy-to-reach place to snack on later.
- They may be hiding it from other ferrets.
- They may be hiding it due to resource scarcity and fear of not getting more food.
Usually stashing food is not a problem as ferrets will eat it later, or you can clean it up. For possessive ferrets, however, food stashing can become an issue if they attempt to resource guard it from you or other ferrets. This can quickly spiral into food aggression in ferrets and will need to be looked into by the appropriate professional. Ferrets may also stash food more in the colder seasons.
Here are a few video examples of ferrets displaying food-related behaviours:
Head dunking & digging in water
Stashing food. Note: the ferret in this video is stashing goldfish crackers, do not feed your ferret human foods!
Sleeping Behaviours
Dead sleep
Some ferrets will fall into such a deep sleep that they will appear completely still or ‘dead’. This can scare owners the first time they see it, but it’s not generally a cause for concern. Some ferrets in extremely heavy dead sleep may even be unresponsive to you gently tapping, handling or attempting to wake them up. As long as they are still warm to the touch and breathing, then they are fine! Just very… VERY asleep.
Cuddling
Ferrets will cuddle each other as a means of affection and warmth. It shows that they are fully bonded and happy with each other. Multiple ferrets (more than 2) cuddling is often called the ‘cuddle puddle’. Ferrets love feeling warm and cosy. Some ferrets (not all) may also like to cuddle with you — although this is normally seen when they are older and more relaxed.
Here are a few video examples of ferret sleeping habits:
Falling asleep dramatically
Dead sleep example 1
Dead sleep example 2
Note: We do not recommend disturbing your ferret unnecessarily during dead sleep
Other Behaviours
Stashing
Ferrets stash things as an instinctive behaviour. This stems from stockpiling food after hunting, but in domesticated ferrets, this instinct can manifest as hoarding toys or household objects.
Pancake/Flop
This is when a ferret lays down, sprawled out on the floor. This is also known as ‘puddling’ because when they lay like this — they look like a little ferret puddle. Ferrets can typically be seen pancaking after eating or during breaks in play. It can show a range of things such as small rest periods between play, the ferret is tired, bored or wanting attention. It can also be when a ferret is submitting to another ferret after dominance, during rough-housing or playing.
Chin rubbing
Ferrets rub their chins along or on surfaces as a form of scent marking and chemical communication. The scent marking of domesticated ferrets is less pronounced, so they won’t chin rub as often. In the wild, ferrets will rub their chins on surfaces and leave a chemical scent of warning or potential danger to other ferrets.
Domesticated ferrets will rub their chins on you to claim you as their own. They may also rub their chins on specific areas or toys that they show a more prominent liking to. This will claim the toys or areas as theirs — although they will still happily share these with other bonded ferret friends and should not show signs of possessiveness. Chin rubbing is vastly different from when ferrets rub their faces along surfaces.
Biting
A tool of communication for ferrets. They’re not able to gesticulate or speak like humans. So most of their communication is through body postures, sounds, and biting! There are 3 main types of ferret bite: play biting, fear biting, and nips. Ferrets have much tougher skin than us, so biting can sometimes cause indentations or bleeding unintentionally. 9/10 ferrets will only bite as a means of initiating play. They’re trying to say “Hey, Hello! I want to play now”. Play bites vary in amount/force depending on your ferret, generally, hobs will bite harder than jills.
Another form of ferret bite is a ferret nip. These nips are much sharper and shorter than a play bite and are used to tell you something like “Don’t touch me” or “Put me down, please”. These bites are not malicious — but simply a way for your ferret to communicate as they do with their furry friends. Fear biting, in short, refers to more prominent biting, latching, or shaking. This will be seen in anxious/fearful ferrets, ferrets which have been neglected or not socialised properly. These are the worst types of bites to address, as they often cause a great deal of pain and the root issue is harder to manage.
I think it’s important to note that ferrets are hunting animals, they could easily take one of your fingers off. So if they’re not eating your fingers, they’re not likely trying to be aggressive. A bite-specific post going into more detail will be made in the future!
Bottlebrush tail
This refers to when a ferret’s tail gets all spiky and poofy! It may resemble a bottle brush or pipe cleaner. When a ferret has a bottle brush tail, it means that it has big feelings of some kind. This can be split into 2 categories: aggression and big feels! Many people talk about the aggressive side of the bottle brush tail, meaning the ferret is unhappy. Many ferrets displaying dominant behaviours may experience bottle brush tails when things get a little out of hand. But it’s important to also note that some ferrets bottle brush when they are experiencing big positive feels! Mainly excitement or playfulness! Bottlebrush tail is similar to a dog that raises their hackles. It’s an involuntary reaction to feelings.
Here are a few video examples of other ferret behaviours:
Ferrets may also display lots of other behaviours to fit their wide scope of personalities. If your ferret rapidly changes their behaviour or is acting lethargic in any way, it is important to consult a vet.
More about ferret Pooting/Puffing can be found in the blog post: L’odeur du furet, aka The smell.
If you’d like to read about common ferret vocalisations, you can see the blog post here.