Ferret Question, please answer...?

I'd look on craigslist. We bought a used ferret cage on there, 4 stories for our two ferrets for around 50. Which is a good price as it was a fairly new cage and would be worth a lot at the pet store. Good luck!

I would suggest perusing craigslist and setting up a time to meet the ferrets before committing to buying them. The cheapest you're going to get is around $200 for a good cage and the ferrets. We got our original two for $350 which came with a Ferret Nation cage (the best cage out there), some food and some cage stuff.

Also, please consider that they are not low-maintenance pets. You're going to need nail-clippers and the time to clip their nails once a week, time daily to clean tidy up their cage, a large enough cage, and a ferret-proofed room to play in.

If you need to find a cheep or free cage, you can't afford ferrets. Ferrets, if they don't die from an intestinal blockage from eating something as small as a pencil eraser or from getting a blockage from a hairball first, WILL develop chronic and expensive diseases as they approach 5-6 years old. Almost all ferrets, if they live long enough (long enough being more than about 5 years) will develop Adrenal disease, Insulinoma, or Leukemia. Leukemia is pretty much untreatable, and the other two can cost hundreds of dollars a month for the rest of the ferret's life to treat. In addition, they need to be taken to the vet at least once a year for vaccines, just like dogs and cats. Ferrets can and do get canine distemper and it is untreatable in ferrets...100% of ferrets that contract distemper will die from it.

Ferrets are very expensive pets. A lot of people get them because they're cute and entertaining and because they believe that, being a "small caged pet," they will be less expensive to care for than a cat or dog. When the reality of vet bills set in, they are devastated that they are left with no inexpensive options and the reality that they may have to euthanize their beloved companion because they simply can not afford to treat them. It's hard for adults to be hit with that realization, but it's even more devastating for children who are not yet old enough to understand that the choice may come down to saving their pet or loosing the house.

I'm not talking about the initial cost of the animals themselves. That is probably going to be one of the least expensive parts of owning a ferret. But a "free" animal is never truly free. They cost just as much to feed and house as an animal that you pay a few hundred dollars for. And their vet bills are anything but "free" too. And ferrets WILL require vet visits at some point in their lives...and especially for ferrets that do not see the vet regularly those vet visits will NOT be cheap. If you can't afford the ONE TIME expense of $100-200 for a cage adequate for 1-2 ferrets, then you're not going to be able to afford the vet bills that will likely be a recurring cost if/when your ferrets come down with a chronic disease. Even annual healthy visits for vaccines cost as much or more than a decent cage (at my vet it's $45 for the exam fee, $18 for the vaccine, and you have to keep the vaccines separated or else the ferret will have a vaccine reaction which means you get to spend that money again in another two weeks to have their vaccine series completed each year...that's over $100 a year for EACH ferret just for a healthy pet visit).

If you can afford all of the expenses of caring for a ferret, I don't understand why the initial investment of a new cage, which is guaranteed to be free of diseases that could sicken or even kill your new pet, is an issue. I work for a vet, and I'm sick of people accusing me and my co-workers of being heartless because they failed to do their research and know just how expensive owning a pet is. Then, when they can't afford proper preventative care and subsequently can't afford to pay for treatment of a preventable or predictable disease it's somehow our fault. As to your friends' ferrets...they were either very lucky, which does happen, or their ferrets were not as healthy as you believed them to be. A lot of ferrets never see a vet for any problems or disease...and a lot of ferrets die at home from "old age" that isn't really age related. I've known lots of people who have had dogs that never had a problem and never got sick. But then I've also known lots of people who have spent thousands of dollars on their dog for one small incident that put the dog in a life-threatening situation.

people on craigslist might have abused animals