Creatures of Habit

When Nyssa was really feeling poorly a couple of weeks ago she was having trouble climbing into the litter pan. The net result was that she'd end up going on the plastic mat in front. I didn't like having to clean this up and Nyssa, a very well trained weasel, was clearly unhappy about it as well. I found a square litter pan with a much larger and lower cutout in front and put it in Nyssa's preferred corner figuring this would help her. Nyssa's reaction: she'd rather run across the living room, down the hall, and into my office to use the triangular corner litter pan she's used to. Thankfully she's feeling better and not having problems getting in.

Old ferrets seem to be very much creatures of habit. That doesn't mean they don't learn new things and pick up new behaviors. They clearly do. They just don't seem to like change if they can avoid it. I see that with Romana as well.

Speaking of changing behavior, when Nyssa has bad days she has trouble controlling her body temperature. She shivers a lot. Podo, Kodo, Ella, and Zephyr came with lots of sleep sacks, fuzzy padded cloth tubes, and different hanging things with folds and fabric to sleep in. Nyssa, who always preferred open hammocks, started using these a lot in recent months, especially taking to a homemade knit tube that Celia made for Ella and Zephyr when they were hers. (Celia, Ella and Zephy's original owner, passed away in January.) Romana is very close to Nyssa so she started joining in, as did Chin Soon. Now I rarely see ferrets in the open hammocks except Nyssa when she's feeling better. If she's warm enough she still loves her hammock.