Their Intelligence Never Ceases To Amaze Me

[airy]

Okay, I love all animals, dogs, cats horses etc etc, but I must say that I think ferrets are the smartest of them all, they just have a way to strategize to get what they want or need I have witnessed it with all my ferrets.

A few months back I noticed Eris was gagging and chocking, it seemed she had a piece of her food stuck to the roof of her mouth and it was causing her a great struggle, I was terrified and doing everything i could to help her, I tried scruffing her to get her to yawn and i shoved my finger in there to pry it out, but that was more difficult than I thought because she was gnawing my finger and shaking her head, I told my husband to call 911 I was so scared but he was like "they wouldn't do anything for a ferret" so I continued in my panicked state to help her and all of a sudden she just takes her little paw and pried that piece out herself, I just thought that was the most brilliant thing I have ever seen a ferret do, that they could even think of something like that, needless to say that piece of food went flying across the room when she flicked it out with her paw, and the very second it landed on the floor there was Loki who ate it..pretty gross lol, but I was really impressed to see my Airy Eris strategize like that.

and Loki, he can do tricks and If I am in another room and I want to see him all I have to do is yell out "Loki Lo, come here buddy" and he will come running in to see me..now that is smart, someone once told me that ferrets cannot even learn their own names like cats and dogs can..well I beg to differ on that one...Oh also he can now walk perfect on a leash, before we moved here he knew his way perfect to the store because when i would take him there he would lead me there and when we came out he would lead me right back home straight to the door, I know ferrets don't have homing instincts like cats and dogs do, but Loki always takes me straight to the door when he wants to go back in.

And Pan Pan, she is so smart, but she is sneaky smart lol. She has a fondness for insoles which is completely forbidden to her..My husbands work boot gel insole is her insole of choice, she knows that she is not allowed to have them, but one night hubby forgot to put those workboots up and left them on the floor, she got into them, took that blue insole and came running into the living room, right at that time I was coming out, as soon as she seen me she turned around and started running the other way..she did that because she knew she was in trouble and that I was going to take it form her..I don't know, but I just felt that that was really smart because she never ever runs from me, but the time I catch her with something that she is not supposed to have she headed for the hills with it, I thought it was really funny

[Johnny and Demon]

I have no words to say how smart ferrets are. One day, I went to the washroom to clean my hands and I did not see Johnny running in. So I shut the door ! After a few minutes, I started calling him "Johnny, johnny" No Johnny .. I used a squeaky toy - thats never fail with my ferrets - they always run for it like super heroes - but no johnny .. then I heard a little noise, it was the noise of someone that was pulling out the rubber mat .. I run into the bathroom and I've seen a little Johnny, staring at me with his little eyes just like he wanted to tell me "it was about time mom !" lol Ferrets are very quiet pets, they do not bark, they do not meow .. but they know how to make noise to let you know they are there. And Demon .. he loves meat jerky and he knows some tricks. So everytime he wants a meat jerky, he starts doing rollovers until I notice him just to have his treat. And if I don't see him doing his rollovers the first time, he starts to climb my leg, so at the moment I start looking at him, he does another rollover ! I can keep telling you stories of my genius little boys, but you'll get bored ! lol I'm sure its the same for every ferrets owners .. those fuzzbutts are too smart Maybe they are little aliens ? lol

[Tressie]

Ferrets ARE amazingly intelligent! They are known to be excellent problem solvers, as you have already discovered. The bad about that is that they will figure out how to get the forbidden object of their desire

And yes they do learn their names and respond to them. They do communicate to us, its up to us to learn their language, which is pretty well body language. Even deaf ferrets will come when you call to them with hand signals.

They also show empathy and sense when you aren't well or sad, hence why they bond profoundly with their humans and vice versa .

Here's an excerpt from an article written by Bob Church in Issue#16 of Modern Ferret Magazine (now defunct):

" OK, he did it. A burglary charge; he’d been caught lifting the wallet from some woman’s purse and it was off to the big house. Now he’s locked behind bars. He paces back and forth for a while, then realizes there is no way out, so drifts over to the bed and sleeps. Once, he rolled over long enough to notice his belly didn’t stop at his waist, but continued on toward his knees. With nothing to do and mentally and physically frustrated, whenever he is allowed into the exercise yard he causes trouble, even gets destructive. He spends even more time in solitary confinement. After a while, he just loses interest in almost anything, never causes trouble anymore, just eats and sleeps.

Is this just another story about problems inherent in the U.S. penal system? Not likely. Such conditions are considered cruel and unusual, a punishment banned by the U.S. Constitution. This is a story about the conditions that many ferrets face each day. Locked into cages with few things of interest, little environmental interaction, and unending monotony, the little beasties drift into behaviors that are unhealthy and destructive. In essence, they stop being ferrets and start being caged animals, displaying behaviors that are neurotic and bizarre.

Ferrets, like nearly all mustelids, are highly intelligent creatures full of curiosity and play. The curiosity is an evolutionary behavior that helps them to find food. Ferrets use a random search pattern when looking for food; you see it each time the ferret is placed into a new environment. They move all over the room, nose to floor, sniffing and touching everything with their noses. This reflects the hunting pattern of wild polecats, which use their noses instead of their eyes to find prey. The random nature of the searching is designed to increase their chance of coming across an odor trail that will lead them to food. Part of the curiosity displayed by ferrets relates to this almost overpowering need to smell and investigate new objects in the environment. It’s a deeply ingrained ferret behavior that is so well known that “ferret” is used to describe prolonged investigation and searching. Indeed, “ferret” has been used as slang for a detective or spy (besides thief).

All mustelids are playful; perhaps they are among the most playful of all the carnivores, engaging in play even when they become adults. Who hasn’t enjoyed the antics of the otters at the local zoo, or watched a nature show where a squirming ball of fur breaks apart to form individual weasels? While a considerable part of play is a characteristic of juvenile behavior, mustelids generally show play behaviors even as adults. Ferrets, being domesticated polecats, hang on to some of their juvenile traits as they get older. Play is one of those traits; even ferrets a decade old can -- and will -- play when the mood strikes them. Again, this is a behavior that comes from deep within the ferret, and one not easily suppressed.

Another trait of ferrets is their high intelligence. That long skull allows for a brain that is larger than that of most animals with the same body size, and it shows. Tests have shown that ferrets are as intelligent as small monkeys when it comes to problem solving. Other tests have shown ferrets to be smarter than cats and most dogs. There is a correlation between intelligence and the need for stimuli; even in animals much dumber than ferrets, scientists have shown the brain needs interesting stimulation for it to develop to its maximum potential, and to remain physically (and emotionally) healthy.

The combination of these three traits -- curiosity, play, and intelligence -- results in an animal that constantly searches and plays during its awake time, getting into anything and everything, and scheming ways to get into things out of its reach. Ferrets will jump, climb, move, and even seemingly teleport to locations we humans thought were just out of reach, and they will make such attempts for what seems like an eternity. Just forget to latch the cage once, or leave a chair by the planter, and you will know exactly what it means to live with a ferret. This is also why ferrets are such good escape artists; they aren’t actually looking to leave, they just want to see what is past the barrier."

Tressie