The Ferret Census
In association with the Ferret Education & Research
Trust
Almost 1400 ferret owners took part
in the 2009 Ferret Census. Here are the results...
LOCATION
The largest ferret population is in the
South East with over a quarter of Britain's ferrets.
Largest areas of ferret population:
South East 27%
West Midlands 15%
South West 13%
North West 12%
FERRET OWNERSHIP
Most respondents have kept ferrets
for many years, with only 16% having kept ferrets for less
than one year and 41% having kept ferrets for over 6 years.
One in five of our respondents had working
ferrets, most own ferrets as a companion.
Over half of ferret owners who
responded to our survey (61%) were female. Female ferret
owners tended to be younger than male ferret owners. In general,
ferret owners tended to be aged between 25 - 54
years, with this age range making up 69% of the
ferret owning population.
NUMBER OF FERRETS
The most popular number of ferrets to own is two (31%), in
total 88% of ferret owners have two or more
ferrets - while one respondent had an incredible 160
ferrets.
The sexes are spilt quite evenly,
52% Hob ferrets and 48% Jill ferrets. 84% of
ferret owners have at least one Hob ferret and 75% have at
least one Jill ferret.
CARE
60% of ferret owners take their
ferret to the vet, but only 23% have had their ferrets
microchipped. The majority of respondents ferrets are neutered,
with 55% saying that most of their ferrets are neutered.
Most ferrets live entirely
outside (58%) and a further 18% live both inside and out.
The most popular bedding is commercially made washable fabric,
which 47% used, while other popular beddings were use straw
(26%) and paper (24%).
COLOURINGS
The sable ferret, or polecat, is the
most popular colouring. This is followed
by albino, sandy, silver and dark eyed white.
FOOD
Most ferret owners feed a complete
dried food, sometimes mixing it with fresh meat. Only 2%
feed entirely raw meat.
Notes: It should be borne in mind that this has
been a self-selection survey and that respondents were invited to
take part in the survey via certain channels (online and through
in-pack questionnaires) which may have excluded some ferret owners
and therefore may mean that the survey is not fully
representative.
To find out more about the work of the
Ferret Education and Research Trust, visit the
FERT
website.