page_title: Ferret
section_title: As pets
hierarchical_section_title: Ferret / As pets
caption_attribution_description: English: This is Vinnie the Ferret in the middle of a war dance jump.
context_page_description: The ferret is the domesticated form of the European polecat, a mammal belonging to the same genus as the weasel, Mustela, in the family Mustelidae. Their fur is typically brown, black, white, or mixed. They have an average length of 51 cm, including a 13 cm tail, weigh about between 0.7 and 2.0 kg, and have a natural lifespan of 7 to 10 years. Ferrets are sexually dimorphic predators, with males being substantially larger than females.
  The history of the ferret's domestication is uncertain, like that of most other domestic animals, but it is likely that they have been domesticated for at least 2,500 years. They are still used for hunting rabbits in some parts of the world, but increasingly they are kept only as pets.
  Being so closely related to polecats, ferrets easily hybridize with them, and this has occasionally resulted in feral colonies of polecat–ferret hybrids that have caused damage to native fauna, especially in New Zealand. As a result, New Zealand and some other parts of the world have imposed restrictions on the keeping of ferrets.
  Several other mustelids also have the word ferret in their common names, including the black-footed ferret, an endangered species.
context_section_description: In the United States, ferrets were relatively rare pets until the 1980s. A government study by the California State Bird and Mammal Conservation Program estimated that by 1996 about 800,000 domestic ferrets were being kept as pets in the United States.
  Like many household pets, ferrets require a cage. For ferrets, a wire cage at least 18 in (460 mm) long and deep and 30 in (760 mm) wide or longer is needed. Ferrets cannot be housed in environments such as an aquarium because of the poor ventilation. It is preferable that the cage have more than one level but this is not crucial. Usually two to three different shelves are used.
caption: A ferret in a war dance jump.
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