How Smart are Ferrets? The Ultimate Beginner's Guide

Welcome to the Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Ferrets! This is Chapter 4: How Smart are Ferrets?

If you already have a solid understanding of where ferret intelligence ranks among other household pets, you can skip to Chapter 5.

For everyone else, this chapter will give you a new found respect for these incredible animals.

Myth: Ferrets are Untrainable

In 2002, Erika Matulich, PhD., wrote a fantastic article all about ferrets in Ferrets USA Magazine. One rumor she put to rest is that ‘ferrets are stupid and untrainable’.

Matulich outlined all the ways that intelligence in animals is usually measured and ranked ferrets in the most common categories:

Ability to Problem Solve: ferrets rank above dogs and cats and some small primates. The weasel family is famously known for their ability to figure out how to get into just about anything. Any ferret owner will tell you: If a ferret wants to get somewhere bad enough, they will figure it out.

Memory Retention: ferrets rank somewhere between dogs and cats.

Ability to Communicate with Humans: dogs have the ability to vocalize and express themselves with their eyes and faces, which is something humans can understand. Ferrets, on the other hand, much prefer to communicate with scent and various body language. Matulich argues that it’s not so much that ferrets are ‘dumb’, but perhaps we as humans are dumb for not translating how a ferret chooses to communicate.

The truth is, ferrets are smart!

In our personal experience, our own ferrets continue to surprise us on a daily basis with how smart they are.

We regularly witness our ferrets moving objects to create better paths to reach something. Albert, our 3 year old ferret taught himself how to turn on our Roomba and activates it regularly throughout the day.

Personally, I look forward to the day when we have better, more intellectually stimulating environments for our ferrets to thrive.

Are Ferrets Trainable?

Absolutely! If you’d like to train your future ferret, the first step is to stop seeing your ferret as a caged animal and start seeing them like a dog. With discipline and patience, you can potty train your ferret, leash train them, and even teach them a few tricks. A ferret’s ability to be trained is only limited by what you believe they can learn.

Need proof? Joey the Trained Ferret was a famous Youtube star who learned countless complicated behaviors and routines.