h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Ferrets - A1049889
Author: Odo - U192764

Ferrets - Please be kind, it's my first attempt at an entry.

Hiya

I'm new here, so I can't really give it an experienced thrashing

Thought it was very good though, very interesting. If it's a general guide to ferrets rather than just on keeping then as pets then you might want to put in a bit more about how they've been used since domesticated, more stories about them?

But i liked it!

love R227790 xx

The last paragraph in 'character and behaviour' needs some attention - "stinking" i think should be "striking", and the 3rd person bit includes "my"!

I'm also curious - can you bathe them?

I liked the entry though

Good entry. Few points

Are there any wild ferrets still left? What do they eat?

The bit about the most stinking behaviour reads strangely - why do they stink when they do their dance?

Love the bit about their bad reputation "own unique musky odour" I bet they do. I can't believe they are no nastier than a rabbit - they eat rabbits... Don't they have sharp pointy teeth?

Needs some links. Ferret fanciers international, ferret's R us, last of the summer wine, whatever. Also some EG links maybe to pets or other rodent entries.

Sprout

It's a very good entry

However, you might want to remove all the references to yourself - the bit about your ferret jumping up against your legs etc - as this isn't allowed in edited entries. You could re-word it to say 'some ferrets have been known to...', or just remove that part.

Also, you could mention the relative merits of male or female ferrets - if i remember correctly the males are the ones that smell, and un-spayed female ferrets need to be mated regularly - but i've never owned a ferret and could easily be wrong!

http://www.ferretcentral.org/faq/

This page tells you more than you would ever want to know about ferrets. Possible link?

If you type ferrets into BBC online you get a page saying that ferrets are the new trendy pet for career women, apparently. More links as well.

I think it was the former sun editor Kelvin ? who used to go round the office screaming ferrets up your trousers to get his staff in the mood? Can anyone confirm?

Sprout

Thank you all.

I've added in some more general information about working ferrets, and corrected a couple of other bits. Can you post links to sites outside hootoo in the same way that you do for hootoo articles?

Sprout, rabbits also have sharp teeth, I’ve seen the wounds inflicted on a human leg by an enraged . I was trying to say that all animals will attack if they feel threatened be they a ferret, cat, rabbit or hamster. I’ll have to have a look at the wording of that section.

Yes you can bath ferrets, though it’s only recommended if they’re very tame as some of them object rather strongly to water.

Looking good so far Odo.

Do you want to add anything about the way ferrets fit into rural English life eg from what I've seen at my local country shows, the ferret corner is very popular, including a "ferret racing" setup.
( or is this just a Derbyshire thing... )

I had a ferret for a short time. They really are great pets. I'm glad you mentioned albino ferrets. I love them

Great entry

In GuideML, external links can be possted as whatever

Ferret racing happens in Yorkshire and Staffordshire too. I've seen people with pet ferrets walk them on leads- they look most bizarre undulating along

Someone else is busy writing an entry on ferret racing so I don't want to overlap their entry. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A1041995 I'll just leave a link.

Off to attempt to add links without upsetting guide ML.

Kerr.

Funny as that ferret racing article is, it will need quite some work before it heads for the EG.

You can't link to non-EG articles in your guide entry by the way.

Sprout

But if they're going to finish it I don't want to prevent it from being included in the guide.

I'm having problems with the links, could someone tell me whats wrong with this guide ML. Please!!

You need a spage between LINK and HREF, and you're only got one set of quote marks. Try:

I'm no longer getting guide ML error messages.

On the other hand I don't think the links are showing of the page!

Time to try again.

SOrry, my fault, I forgot to add you need something between the > and the like this-

This bit here is where the link will be

and here

Yep, that works.

That looks a bit better!

Nice article!

A couple of things - you mention about their musky odour and the smell coming from glands in the skin. The main culprit of the ferret 'stink' is the scent glands in the tail. At one point these were being surgically removed to make them more bearable, however this is now banned in the UK.

Also ferrets can be trained to walk on a harness and leash to help with the inquisitive and explorative nature, allowing them to get out and go for a walk etc. OK so you would get laughed at in the park but apparently it is quite recommended by ferret fanciers!

But a great first entry

"A domesticated ferret has a life expectancy of between six and ten years."

Is there such thing as an undomesticated ferret, and if so, what is its life-expectancy?

Please note that life-expectancy is a compound-noun and could deserve a -, whatever that is ... hyphen?