Quoted:
hey, do ferrets shit all over the place and squirt their musk all over? can you kitty litter train them?
View Quote
Yes to both questions. Many ferrets now are sold "de-scented" meaning their scent glands have been removed. They like to use a corner for their restroom. All you have to do is put a litter box in their corner of choice at a young age. Put a little dookie in it and they get the picture. They crap like nothing you've ever seen before. They have an incomparable capacity for poop production. If they go where they shouldn't, let it dry and it cleans up easily.
They used to also be banned in Hawaii. People in these stats believe that 1) ferrets are viscious animals and 2) that they will escape, mate, and form a community of ferrets that will destroy wildlife. Both of these are false. Do ferrets bite? Yes. Can they be trained not to? Yes. How often do you hear of horrible ferret attacks and how often do you hear of horrible dog attacks?. Ferrets are the third most popular pet in the US behind dogs and cats. You'd hear about attacks if they were worth talking about. Will they escape and destroy wildlife? No. They are too domesticated to hunt on their own. Ferrets also have no sweat glands meaning any temperature above 90 degrees is potentially fatal. They also have thin fur, meaning they can't survive well in the cold. And lastly, the large majority of female ferrets raised on farms have been spayed. Why? If a female does not mate during their first estrus, she will most likely die of hormone imbalance.
So, that means that an escaping (young) female will have to find a non-existant escaped male within a matter of months or she will die in the wild. That is if she doesn't starve to death or die of exposures first...very unlikely.