ferrets

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.