ferrets

This adorable little ferret is named Smokey. She wouldn’t sit behind the covered box. She wouldn’t sit on top of the covered box. Smokey had places to go and people to see. If you look closely, her tail is poised for jumping and she’s sliding half off the front of the box.

If you look closely at her mouth, she had just shut her mouth from a nice, big lick of Ferretone. I’ve gotten some really funny-looking faces on ferrets in mid-lick. Some include incredibly long tongues, others look like the ferret is making faces at me.

All ferrets are hard to photograph; some are more hard than others. I usually end up taking between 5 and 15 photos of a single ferret, just to try to be sure and get a good one. The odd thing is that sometimes I can’t tell if I’ve gotten a good shot until I look at them on the computer. Sometimes even the LCD screen isn’t enough.

There have been many times when I’ve been reviewing the photos later, only to laugh out loud from a hilarious expression I’d missed on the camera’s LCD screen.

It’s sometimes frustrating, and it’s certainly a lot of work, but when you get a good shot, suddenly all the time and effort is worth it.

This cute little guy was named Peanut Butter. He’d been owned by a loving older lady who didn’t know much about ferrets. He came into the shelter very fat, since she fed him pretty much anything (except perhaps the high protein food he was supposed to have) and didn’t let him out of the cage (because she was so old and frail she was afraid she’d never catch him again).

In this photo, Peanut Butter has his back half on the table and the front half up on the covered box. He has his front legs pulled back a bit, so they’re covered by his ample chest. He was a gorgeous boy who was interested, but not frightened by my odd noises. I think he almost looks like he thinks I’m rather silly.

We were lucky enough to only need to set him up there and make a weird noise, and he held still long enough for me to get this photo.

He was adopted shortly after I posted his photo on my shelter website. That just goes to show the power of a good photo. I think a good photo captures the personality of the ferret so the potential adoptor can really see the personality inside.

This photo is from a photo shoot where I used a “set.” I used a piece of material as a back drop that was mottled fall colors. Most people stay away from bright colors for back drops, but some of the most interesting photos I’ve taken used some rather unorthadox backgrounds.

Then we placed a small box on the table and draped a piece of green fake fur over it. The intention was to have the ferret stand behind the box and put their feet up on the box, but this little girl was so small, she barely cleared the top!

It seems that some ferrets, when placed on top of a small box, tend to stay put–at least for a few seconds! The look on her face is a result of my doing that loud “EEK-EEK” sound. She was quite startled, and was seriously considering running away.

I use treats a lot to get ferrets to sit still. Of course, this means I get a lot of photos with cute little pink tongues in them. I think they’re adorable :)   Some ferrets are SO wiggly, that post-Ferretone photos are all you’re going to get. This little girl was very young and very, very wiggly. We tried to put her on our little “photo stage” but all I was getting was the tip of her tail as she leapt off the table!

I try not to resort to holding the ferrets, but since I run a shelter and need a photo to put on the website, I sometimes have to. This particular little maniac was still so wiggly that I couldn’t get a shot without a motion blur! So we not only had to hold her, but we had to ply her with Ferretone. She didn’t mind.

I originated the technique of making this god-awful squeaking noise (sort of a loud “EEK-EEK-EEK-EEK-EEK”) that often really gets their attention. I did it a couple times at ferret shows when one of my ferrets was being photographed, and now every single show I go to, allllllll day I get to listen to “EEK-EEK-EEK-EEK-EEK!” while the “professional” photographers try to photograph ferrets! LOL! Serves me right.

Once, I was trying to photograph a baby ferret for a friend and did the EEK EEK thing and the poor thing screamed and jumped off the table! I felt so bad. Maybe it’s a ferret alarm sound or something. I have no idea what I was saying in “ferret-eze.”

A good trick I saw someone use was to place a solid plastic “bushel basket” on top of the ferret and when they were ready to take the photo, the helper would yank the basket off and the guy taking the photo would sqeak something.

That seemed to work pretty darned well, but it requires a level of coordinated helper I just don’t have. :)  Hey, my friends are helpful, just not THAT helpful.

In another blog I’ll show you some of the sets I’ve used.

How do you get a ferret to sit still for a photo? Well, first you liberally apply Fursty Ferret Ale.

Actually, you liberally apply Ferretone. It’s easiest if you have a helper. You have them let the ferret lick the Ferretone from a small bottle, and when you yell, “Clear!” they pull their hand back and you take the photo fast.

This ferret was a particularly laid-back guy who really didn’t mind wearing those silly ears.

Hi, my name is Barb Carlson and I run a ferret shelter in
Pittsburgh, PA. It’s not a very easy calling, but it does have its rewards. I also work full time as a secretary, so that adds a lot of stress to the whole “being a shelter mom” life. But, since I like to eat and do enjoy central heating, I’m stuck with it.

Right now I have over 35 ferrets in the shelter. Some are old and sick, some are much too nippy to adopt out, some are being “babysat” for people and some are highly adoptable. If you’re interested in adopting a ferret, go to the Hide-E-Hole Ferret Rescue and put in an application.