I personally use compacted wood furnace fuel pellets, they work really well. The pellets break down into wood dust when peed on, so it doesnt make any dust at all. Ive noticed different types of fuel pellets soak up pee differently, so some types smell more than others. 🤔
We had been thinking of trying the walnut litter so was thrilled to see you tested that one. Very informative video, thanks for taking the time to make it! Edit to add: The Tofu litter looks interesting, but I avoid anything that has peas in it due to the bladder stone issues that they think is related to the peas. Have you heard about this?
Bladder stones are an interesting topic (if you are so inclined like me!), and one for which science has not yet concluded. The issue relating to “peas”, is the formation of cystine uroliths, which form due to excess levels of cystine which are not processed effectively by the body. The link to peas is because pea proteins break down into high levels of cystine amino acids than most meat proteins. This is therefore suggested to lead to a higher risk of developing cystine uroliths. Note however, that its not exclusively a “pea” risk, rather its any food with a higher cystine content (any legumes for instance). IT just so happens that peas are a common choice as the replacement starch for grain-free foods, but the issue wouldn’t go away if you swapped peas for another legume. Now, excess cystine should still be dealt with effectively by the body, and hence it requires another metabolic defect (as well as other environmental and bodily factors) within the animal for uroliths to form. In dogs and humans cystine urolithiasis is an inherited metabolic defect which in known to be caused by the mutations in specific genes. The theory is therefore that a similar hereditary genetic causation is a factor in ferret uroliths. This is supported by the significantly higher incidence in this problem in North America, where the gene pool is far smaller due to inbreeding in the large ferret farms. Its an ongoing investigation, but whilst it is currently a “risk factor” for owners to consider, its not clear just how serious it is as a risk factor in the UK, as over here its still a relatively rare condition and indeed most (75%) of bladder stones are struvite uroliths not cystine. Ultimately however, cystine uroliths can only form from the animal digesting the pea protein, as it is necessary for the digestion enzymes to break the pea proteins down into the component cystine amino acids for it to create a problem. You raised the concern in relation to the Tofu litter, so I think that this is pretty much a zero risk scenario unless the ferrets start eating the litter.
That is a very informative read! Cornflake and Cheerio don't show interest in eating litter, but Noodle does. Oddly enough she will eat the corn litter by Amazon but will not eat the World's Best corn litter. We will definitely not be buying any more of the WB (just to be safe) and will try switching to the Walnut litter. (it's slightly cheaper anyway) The soy litter aside it's something we have been concerned about for a while when it comes to cat kibble and ferrets. Many of the Cat kibbles contain "vegetable" protein and it's likely that peas/legumes are in there. Maybe it isn't such a worry here in the UK if genetics could be involved.
My current ferret uses puppy pads exclusively. He will pee and poop into rice boxes if that counts lol! Prior ferrets used Yesterday's News paper pellet litter alongside the pads. Swheat Scoop the cats liked would attract ants.
Hi, this video was very interesting but does anyone know of why ferrets sometimes chose to poop right next to the litter box rather than in it and how I can discourage this behavior please 🙏
Unlike cats ferrets don't have an instinct to bury their waste, so they don't seek out a litter box to use as a toilet. Instead they will decide on a place where they are going to go, and go. What we do as parents is to work out where they want to go a d stick a litter tray there to collect the mess. But because they don't have the natural instinct to find the tray as such, it means that they aren't overly fussed where they go. So whilst most times they will go into the corner inside the tray but other times they might just choose some other place, or even right next to it seems good enough that time. The main rule for ferrets seems to be to find a corner or a wall so that they can back up and keep lookout for danger whilst they poop. But as long as they feel safe they don't get too specific about the location. Ferrets dont usually poop on bedding material so by placing blankets in places you want to avoid them pooping you can often have good success. Sometimes with new ferrets this involves blanketing the entire cage and put the litter tray on top. After a while it becomes habit and they head for the same place each time which makes it easier. But with the size of our enclosures it's never perfect. Every day will be poops outside the box as someone's decided "this will do".
@kingsdownferrets8485 this is really helpful, in that I know I am doing all I can to discourage this behavior. Unfortunately our ferrets live indoors in a carpeted bedroom and it would seem that all I can do is keep cleaning up the messes when they miss the mark lol. In hindsight carpet wasn't the best option but as we have no option to change this currently we will just have to do our best. But thank you, as I am now reassured that I'm not doing anything incorrect in this regards.
ohhh I didn't know about the equine wood pellet! thank you!
I personally use compacted wood furnace fuel pellets, they work really well. The pellets break down into wood dust when peed on, so it doesnt make any dust at all. Ive noticed different types of fuel pellets soak up pee differently, so some types smell more than others. 🤔
We had been thinking of trying the walnut litter so was thrilled to see you tested that one. Very informative video, thanks for taking the time to make it!
Edit to add: The Tofu litter looks interesting, but I avoid anything that has peas in it due to the bladder stone issues that they think is related to the peas. Have you heard about this?
Bladder stones are an interesting topic (if you are so inclined like me!), and one for which science has not yet concluded. The issue relating to “peas”, is the formation of cystine uroliths, which form due to excess levels of cystine which are not processed effectively by the body. The link to peas is because pea proteins break down into high levels of cystine amino acids than most meat proteins. This is therefore suggested to lead to a higher risk of developing cystine uroliths. Note however, that its not exclusively a “pea” risk, rather its any food with a higher cystine content (any legumes for instance). IT just so happens that peas are a common choice as the replacement starch for grain-free foods, but the issue wouldn’t go away if you swapped peas for another legume. Now, excess cystine should still be dealt with effectively by the body, and hence it requires another metabolic defect (as well as other environmental and bodily factors) within the animal for uroliths to form. In dogs and humans cystine urolithiasis is an inherited metabolic defect which in known to be caused by the mutations in specific genes. The theory is therefore that a similar hereditary genetic causation is a factor in ferret uroliths. This is supported by the significantly higher incidence in this problem in North America, where the gene pool is far smaller due to inbreeding in the large ferret farms. Its an ongoing investigation, but whilst it is currently a “risk factor” for owners to consider, its not clear just how serious it is as a risk factor in the UK, as over here its still a relatively rare condition and indeed most (75%) of bladder stones are struvite uroliths not cystine. Ultimately however, cystine uroliths can only form from the animal digesting the pea protein, as it is necessary for the digestion enzymes to break the pea proteins down into the component cystine amino acids for it to create a problem. You raised the concern in relation to the Tofu litter, so I think that this is pretty much a zero risk scenario unless the ferrets start eating the litter.
That is a very informative read! Cornflake and Cheerio don't show interest in eating litter, but Noodle does. Oddly enough she will eat the corn litter by Amazon but will not eat the World's Best corn litter. We will definitely not be buying any more of the WB (just to be safe) and will try switching to the Walnut litter. (it's slightly cheaper anyway)
The soy litter aside it's something we have been concerned about for a while when it comes to cat kibble and ferrets. Many of the Cat kibbles contain "vegetable" protein and it's likely that peas/legumes are in there. Maybe it isn't such a worry here in the UK if genetics could be involved.
My current ferret uses puppy pads exclusively. He will pee and poop into rice boxes if that counts lol!
Prior ferrets used Yesterday's News paper pellet litter alongside the pads.
Swheat Scoop the cats liked would attract ants.
Great video
Thanks for the visit!
Where did you buy the walnut litter from? I had a look on eBay and they’re all from the USA with like £40 shipping 😂
There's a link in description to the amazon product. But it is often cheaper via Zooplus 👍
Hi, this video was very interesting but does anyone know of why ferrets sometimes chose to poop right next to the litter box rather than in it and how I can discourage this behavior please 🙏
Unlike cats ferrets don't have an instinct to bury their waste, so they don't seek out a litter box to use as a toilet. Instead they will decide on a place where they are going to go, and go. What we do as parents is to work out where they want to go a d stick a litter tray there to collect the mess. But because they don't have the natural instinct to find the tray as such, it means that they aren't overly fussed where they go. So whilst most times they will go into the corner inside the tray but other times they might just choose some other place, or even right next to it seems good enough that time. The main rule for ferrets seems to be to find a corner or a wall so that they can back up and keep lookout for danger whilst they poop. But as long as they feel safe they don't get too specific about the location. Ferrets dont usually poop on bedding material so by placing blankets in places you want to avoid them pooping you can often have good success. Sometimes with new ferrets this involves blanketing the entire cage and put the litter tray on top. After a while it becomes habit and they head for the same place each time which makes it easier. But with the size of our enclosures it's never perfect. Every day will be poops outside the box as someone's decided "this will do".
@kingsdownferrets8485 this is really helpful, in that I know I am doing all I can to discourage this behavior. Unfortunately our ferrets live indoors in a carpeted bedroom and it would seem that all I can do is keep cleaning up the messes when they miss the mark lol. In hindsight carpet wasn't the best option but as we have no option to change this currently we will just have to do our best. But thank you, as I am now reassured that I'm not doing anything incorrect in this regards.