All About Ferrets And Rats

"[...]heartily-they grunt and smack their lips with much satisfaction when fed; particularly so when feasting off a rat, as there is nothing they enjoy more than a good, big, healthy one-turning the rodent inside out and ploughing out the interior with great exactness. V.-FERRET HOUSES. [...]."

All about Ferrets and Rats : A Complete History of Ferrets, Rats, and Rat Extermination from Personal Experiences and Study. Also a Practical Hand-Book on the Ferret. Our dictionaries say that "ferret" as a verb active means to search out carefully. This is certainly an important function of the animal, but, as it belongs to the Musteline or flesh-eating weasel family, it has also inherited these animals' boldness and savageness, though tempered and exercised in a very useful direction, i. e., of killing off the most bothersome and numerous of our vermin for us. It is rather a well-known family,[Pg 8] the one to which the ferret belongs, including such animals as the sable, which furnishes the highly-prized fur, the skunk, with its not as greatly valued perfume, the ermine, the color of which is likened to the driven snow and whose dress forms the badge of royalty, the weasel, from which artists obtain their finest brushes, the marten, the badger, and the otter. The shape of these animals, the characteristics being strongly marked in the ferret, is long, slender, and serpentine (snake-like and winding), their teeth are very sharp, the muzzle and legs short. Their average food is rats, rabbits, and birds. Members of this class are found in all climates and parts of the earth. It is necessary to state, primarily, that there is no such thing as a wild ferret; it is domesticated in the same degree as a cat or a dog. The wild animal from which the ferret is bred is the weasel, just as the dog is originally of wolf extraction, and the cat of the same class as the tiger or lion. The ferret is also interbred with the different species of the musteline tribe, such as the mink, marten, polecat, and fitch. These are nevertheless all weasels in the same way that terriers, black and tans, Newfoundlands, and poodles all belong to the family of dogs. The ferret's origin has been traced by some to Spain, by others again to the northwestern part of Africa, and by still different writers as far away from us as Egypt, but it was first used authentically for ratting and rabbiting in Great Britain, where it is most highly prized, its merits understood, and where almost every one is as familiar with it as he is with the nature of his house cat. The public here in America is yet but indifferently acquainted with the ferret. At an exhibition of ferrets made by the writer at Madison Square Garden there was about one out of every fifteen persons that knew the name of the animal at all, and the ferrets were alternately designated as skunks, weasels, guinea-pigs, raccoons, monkeys, woodchucks, kittens, puppies, squirrels, rabbits, chipmunks, rats (an animal for which they are commonly mistaken), hares, martens, otters, small kangaroos, muskrats, beavers, seals, and, ridiculous as it may seem, small bears. The American race of ferrets has been bred to a high degree of intelligence, as the proper medium of wildness in the hunt and docility to its keeper has been obtained principally through the efforts of the present writer. This, however, has only been brought about after a great deal of close study and experiment in cross breeding, until now the American animal is greatly preferable to its more sluggish and vicious English brother.

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Excerpt from All About Ferrets and Rats: A Complete History of Ferrets, Rats, and Rat Extermination From Personal Experiences and Study; Also a Practical Hand-Book on the Ferret Introductory; The Ferret; What a Ferret Is; Character and Appearance; Eat Hunting; Food; Ferret Houses; Diseases; Hardiness; Breeding and Training; Strength and Bile; Handling; With Cats and Dogs; Advantages as a Eat Exterminator; Miscellaneous; The Eat; The Eat Family and its Varieties; Eat History; The Kings Own Eat-Catcher; Eat Society, Cannibalism, and Friendship; Multiplying Powers; Unabridged Bill of Fare; Ferocity; Eats in Breweries, Slaughter Houses, Markets, Stables, and Barn-yards; Eats as Wine Drinkers; Destructiveness; Rats as Food; Rat Nests; The Rat's Musical Talents and Eyesight; Rats as Moralists; Rats in the Good Old Days, and the Modern Rat Superstitions; Review of the Rat, and Conclusion; Rat Extermination; Traps; Poisons; Dogs, Cats, and Ferrets; The Origin Of The Ferret, with Hints to Darwin About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

A concise guide to the care of small mammals, Ferrets, Rabbits, and Rodents: Clinical Medicine and Surgery covers the conditions seen most often in veterinary practice. The book emphasizes preventive medicine along with topics including disease management, ophthalmology, dentistry, and zoonosis. More than 400 illustrations demonstrate key concepts related to radiographic interpretation, relevant anatomy, and diagnostic, surgical, and therapeutic techniques. Now in full color, this edition adds coverage of more surgical procedures and expands coverage of zoonotic disease. From editors Katherine Quesenberry and James W. Carpenter, along with a team of expert contributors, the "Pink Book" provides an authoritative, single source of information that is hard to find elsewhere. A logical organization makes it quick and easy to find important information, with each section devoted to a single animal and chapters within each section organized by body system. Over 400 photographs and illustrations highlight key concepts such as radiographic interpretation and the main points of diagnostic, surgical, and therapeutic techniques. A chapter on ophthalmology provides hard-to-find information on eye care for ferrets, rabbits, rodents, and other small mammals. Coverage of preventive medicine includes basic biology, husbandry, and routine care of the healthy animal. The drug formulary supplies dosage instructions for ferrets, rabbits, guinea pigs, chinchillas, hamsters, rats/mice, prairie dogs, hedgehogs, and sugar gliders. Chapter outlines offer at-a-glance overviews of the contents of each chapter. Handy tables and charts make it easy to find key information. Expanded Zoonotic Diseases chapter adds more depth along with the latest information on the rising potential for disease transmission to humans as exotic pets become more popular. Additional surgical procedures for each species are included, some with step-by-step instructions accompanied by color photographs and line drawings. Full-color images show the sometimes minute structures of these small animals and make accurate diagnoses easier, especially for lymphoproliferative diseases of rabbits, endoscopy, cytology, and hematology.