Ferrets will play with just about anything you put in front of them. If you have ever owned a ferret, you know that you can put 20 great toys in front of them only to see them running off with something they have found that could be deadly if chewed.

As a shelter mom, I have had the hairs on the back of my neck stand up in fear as I am shown the newly surrendered ferret’s toys. A blockage just waiting to happen! They are quietly tossed away or donated to a dog shelter.

Have I scared the pants of you yet? Hope so, because a great homemade toy is your pants/sweats/jeans. Ferrets love to tunnel and they love crawling through the legs of your pants. You’re headed out right now to Value Village to buy up some old pairs of jeans, right?! Grab some old sweatshirts too.  Not only do they love to sleep in old sweatshirts but the arms make great mini tunnels.

Other great homemade toys are:

plastic grocery bags with the handles removed to avoid strangulation. Paper bags any size, they love the crinkly noises they make                   any cardboard box with different shaped holes cut out – your ferrets will think of themselves as the new whack a mole as they pop out of the different holes.                                                                                                some of us even let our ferrets play in the plastics storage cupboard; allowing our furry to “sneak” in and spend the next 30 minutes pushing all the containers and lids out on to the floor                                            you can play magic carpet ride by dragging an old towel across your floor with the ferret catching a ride!

There are some great safe toys that you can pick up at your local dollar store such as: jingle balls, rope toys, stuffies without beads or foam, MFA knotty knots etc etc

assortment of safe toys

maize created with plastic tubes, please note these tube are next to impossible to find now. I watch kijiji and will purchase an old unusable cage just to get the tubes!

round tunnel, elephant tunnel

hard plastic/hard rubber ring baby toys-NOT GOOD FOR FERRETS

I have taken pictures of a small display sample of bad toys for ferrets. Toys that the ferrets can chew pieces off and end up with a fatal blockage. check out my blog BAD Toys for Ferrets.

One last tip, before you give your ferret what you hope will be a fun toy ask yourself the following: can my ferret chew and swallow a piece, can my ferret strangle on cords or handles, can my ferret suffocate?