WARNING: Although this is a very fun game for you and your ferrets, it is RISKY in that a ferret or two can fall out of the blanket, hit their heads together, or similar accidental incidents ... BE CAREFUL. This game is best done with at least two humans and just one or two ferrets ... to be on the safest side...

It was laundry day, and the sheets were stripped off the bed. Our bed is a queen sized air mattress, raised very high off the ground by a waterbed frame that was kept from the old bed. One must hop up to get into bed each night. The blankets and comforter were hanging off the bottom of the bed, still tucked under the mattress so they would not be going anywhere. Basil sauntered over to the pile of blankets and started nosing around. I placed him on the yellow fleece blanket, the innermost layer, and began gently tossing him back and forth. Cusioned in a soft layer of fleece and comforter, Basil was supported off the ground on a cloud-like surface, and started war dancing and dooking, having a blast. Blitz ran in to see what all the fuss was about, and the game was born.

I called for my husband to join me, quickly, and of course in the process scared him, having created the illusion via my voice that something was wrong. My laughter combined with two dooking and wildly dancing ferrets being tossed around inside layers of blankets encouraged him to join in the fun. I directed him to grab the other side of the blankets, and we were tossing Basil and Blitz up and down, side to side, being careful that they did not fall or jump out or bop heads. We will try this with the other four Extreme Weezils next chance we get!

This game is one of necessity. Especially in Blitz's case, as he gets obsessed with coming out of the ferret room to the point of throwing a Blitzy Fit. We will give any ferret involved a snack, such as a raisin, a Chicken Stick, or a Foamy Fry, so that they get their minds on something else besides the destrucion of trying to claw or bite their way out of their ample room...

Find objects to procure for growing personal collection. check for unobstructed pathway to hidey-hole. return for said object. carry to hidey-hole. leave there. examples: empty soda cans, film canisters, makeup, etc.

take a few pieces of unopened mail belonging to your humans. they have lots and won't notice it gone! bring to hidey-hole. leave there.

The Extreme Weezils' latest favorite game, and just in time for the hot weather! All six ferrets are placed in the bathtub and the water is turned on just enough so it slowly drips ... drips ... drips ... drips. The ferrets crowd around the faucet, waiting for a drip to land on thier ferrety faces, heads, and front paws, squinching and squirming, prancing and dancing in the bathtub, and once they are soaked they enjoy wildly wardancing around the house, wiping themselves dry on the carpet, our clothes, the cats, etc.

All six ferrets enjoy this game occasionally, but Bandit absolutely loves it! Whenever my husband makes dinner with vegetables he lets whichever ferret wants to sniff the veggies before they get washed and chopped. Carrots, potatoes, and even onions get closely examined and rolled around on the floor before preparation. Who says ferrets can't cook?

There are two parts to the fine are of Cat Stalking according to the Extreme Weezils. Part one consists of the Glare & Stare - the participating ferret[s] saunters up to one of two cats and flops down near them, usually within a foot. Gradually, said ferret creeps up closer and closer to the cat until ferret nose meets cat fur, the deeper in the better, or feline victim mews in frustration and takes off.

[Eventually, even the strongest-willed cat will flee unless my husband or I remove the offending ferret ourselves.] It is at this point the chase begins - usually ferret chases cat, but sometimes cat chases ferret. Sometimes a real brave-feeling ferret will turn on the cat chasing them and open their jaws wide, bearing teeth and ready to use them.

When we first moved in together, my husband and I sank a lot of money into our first co-owned piece of furniture - a $2000 sectional couch that seems to have been made with teddy bear materials ... all fuzzy and snuggly ... Of course this was the first damaged and most often violated piece of furniture since we've had ferrets....

Over the past year, our ferrets have burrowed out various areas under the couch via the underside lining to create a private, inaccessible to humans, place to sleep, hide, and put their treasures. The most adept at Couch Trolling is Basil, who has been known to hide under there for over an hour while we frantically run through the house calling his name - Booda Bunny [squeaker] and Ferretone in hand ....

This is a tried and true 'amuse the weezils' game : Place a pair or two of pants [jeans, sweatpants, anything that does NOT have a very small opening at the ankles!] on the floor and watch your ferrets do the Pantz Dantz!

WARNING : When ANY clothing, blankets, etc. are on the floor and the ferrets are out, or you even THINK they MAY be out, WATCH YOUR STEP! So many unsuspecting ferret moms and dads have accidentally hurt [or worse!] their fuzzies because of a simple mistake like stepping in the wrong place ....

For the past couple of years we have been receiving orders from several companies containing starch 'peanuts' as packaging. Although the information sheet accompanying the packaging states clearly the ingredients and lack of toxicity, we have been quite reluctant to allow our Extreme Weezils to play in them. Alas, we have been beaten, and the ferrety need for new and different fun games has become greater than our paranoia over our ferrets' penchant for getting into trouble....

We kept a close eye on them during each play session. This is what we observed: Bandit submerged himself in the box of packaging, apparently trying to eat his way out. He was finally removed from the box COVERED in half-melted starch peanuts [ferret-spit soaked, of course!] Basil buried himself in the packaging, having the time of his life, again. His brother [and lately partner in crime] Blitz also had a blast jumping in, war dancing and dooking in and around, and generally enjoying himself with the box.

Every other ferret went into the box, took a starch peanut [except Sasha, who tried waltzing away with a group of five all melded together!] and went to stash it under the couch. We wiped our tears of laughter away and were able to retrieve all the starch peanuts, but not without some mysteriously being reduced in size to about half [also somehow soaked with ferret-spit.... hmmm....]

This game has been around for some time, but for reasons beyond my comprehension I took it off this site. Silly me. Bobbing for Raisins combines ferrets' love for splashing around in water with raisin hunting. Fill a hard plastic shallow container, size depending on how many ferrets will be playing at once, and put about 1/2 of an inch or so of lukewarm water in .... Add randomly placed raisins, with or without the ferrets watching where you place them in the water, and watch the fun begin!

Every one of the six Extreme Weezils love this game, as it offers both water fun and snacks. Fun and snacks. What else does the discerning Weezil need? Of course, they need more in real life, but we let them think what they want as it does not hurt anyone .... There are several different styles of raisin retrieval. The most straightforward of those is the 'dive in and take it' method, which invariably results in a soaking wet ferret with raisin breath. Other raisin extraction methods include the tentative 'one foot in the water' raisin scan, the 'desperation quick dive' move [becomes optional when the ferret resorting to said method has not found a raisin yet] and finally the 'wait until Dad feels sorry for me not having found any raisins yet.' I seriously doubt any ferret would think twice about trading dignity for a snack ....

You will need at least two pieces of 15 to 25 foot long tubing for this game, either some type of PVC piping or dryer hose or even the tubes specially sold for ferrets [we have a bit of all!] The latest incarnation of this game includes two 20' clear Ferret Freeway tubes and a 'T' junction made of hard plastic. All six of the Extreme Weezils race up and down the hall, inside or outside the tube, racing with and chasing each other, sometimes with a cat or two waiting at the end of the hallway.

Each ferret has a unique way of 'tubing.' Bear glides down the length of the tube almost effortlessly, his sleek athletic ferret body almost never touching the sides. Bandit barely makes it through the tube, as he is the biggest ferret of our business, but he enjoys it just the same. Blitz is a tube running pro, but is just as happy to follow along outside the tube, Weezil WarDancing his way to the other end where he ambushes the ferret on his way out of the tube. Basil is an expert tube warrior, using his front paws to avert a frontal ferret attack from one of his siblings, while all the others use their jaws and teeth. Raven likes to go through tubes on her back, or at least do a spin or two on the way through. Sasha will actually sleep in a tube if you let her, although it must be a solid plastic one so she feels safe.

We've finally admitted it, to each other, out loud: We have very spoiled ferrets! Last night brought one of those bored ferret times, when the entire group of six ferrets sulked around the house [out of their ferret room, which of course has every luxury and necessity known to man or fert] looking like they had been all locked away for weeks, with nothing but an empty cell to hold them. So, the brainstorming began .... what could we whip up for our Extreme Weezils using stuff we already had in the house? EUREKA! We had a full monster - sized bag and a half of Carefresh Bedding left over from when we used to use it to line the bottom of Bear, Bandit, and Blitz's cage in the beginning .... When they began to make a huge mess of it, including using it as a giant litter box area, it was time to switch to towels.... anyway ...

Add a half a bag of bedding to a large tupperware type container [the one we have extra for such an occasion, tucked away in the back of the closet, is about a foot or so high and a few feet long, and INEXPENSIVE!!!] After adding each "layer" of bedding, from a few inches up, add a ferret or two or six, watch them go beserk, jumping in and out of the container, snorkeling, dooking, wardancing, leaping for joy, and various happy ferret behaviors in varying degrees. Add additional layers of bedding until desired total is reached. In our case it was half a monster bag or so, enough for at least three or more ferrets at a time could dig down into the bedding enough to be completely covered! Several times all we saw were ferret tails sticking out of the bedding, like spring flowers beginning to grow in order to produce a ferret plant. The "Six Ferret Salad" name comes from my mom's Seven Bean Salad, which is made and served in a see-through glass bowl so each colorful layer is visible.

Any hard plastic bag will do for this game, although the more crinkle noise it can make, the better .... We use grocery store bags, the hard plastic kind only, with the handles cut off for safety. Now, let's begin! Get ferrets attention via shaking the bag and raising it up and down, allowing it to fall gently over the ferret, enticing it to jump on the bag and start getting crazy .... Now walk up and down the hallway, garment bag in one hand dragging behind you, and watch how many ferrets jump on or in for a ride!

Although it is possible, the likelyhood of ferrets suffocating from these types of bags are is somewhat minimal at best, but ferrets should be supervised at all times when they have access to and/or are playing with plastic bags, PERIOD.