How To Keep Your Carpet Clean And Smelling Fresh When You Have A Pet Ferret
Ferrets can be fun pets, but they can also be messy. Your ferret shouldn't be kept in a cage all the time. They need to roam around the room or house for exercise and mental stimulation so they're healthy and happy. You may even leave your ferret out all day except when you're gone or at night when you're asleep. That can pose a problem with odor from your ferret's body oils or messes on the floor, and this is a problem when you have carpet. Here are some tips for keeping your carpet clean and free from odors when you live with a ferret.
Avoid Using Scented And Powdered Cleaners
Your ferret has their nose close to the ground, so you don't want to use heavily scented cleaners on your carpet or powders your ferret could inhale. A good way to keep your carpets clean is to have them cleaned by a professional a couple of times a year and let the cleaner know you have a ferret so they can use products that won't bother their respiratory system. Still, you'll need to clean up accidents as soon as they happen, so choose a product that won't harm your pet.
Try Enzyme Cleaners
Choose an enzyme cleaner at the pet store to use for spot cleaning. You can buy products made for cage cleaning as well as carpet cleaning. These products often have to sit on the stain for hours, so use them when your ferret is sleeping in the cage so they won't get in the product when the floor or carpet is wet with the cleaner. Enzyme cleaners break down odors to eliminate them rather than cover them up. Trying to cover ferret odors with room sprays doesn't work, and it fills the air with particulates that could harm your ferret.
Don't Bathe Your Ferret Too Often
While the body oils of a ferret can be strong-smelling, the odor can be made worse if you wash your ferret because that encourages their skin to release more body oil. You may need to give your ferret a bath occasionally, but if you do it too often, you might make the ferret odor worse, and that odor will get picked up by the carpet fibers and make the carpet smelly too.
Clean Your Ferret's Space Daily
Ferret odor can get out of control if you're lax about keeping the cage and play area clean. If your entire home has carpet, you may want to restrict where your ferret can roam so you can cut down on the amount of cleaning you have to do. You may want to put a low-pile rug over the carpet in the ferret's room. You might even want to put sheet vinyl over the carpet in the corners since ferrets like to go up to a corner to use the restroom. Ferrets can use litter boxes just like cats, but they may not always make it to the box. If you have a ferret that insists on going in a certain corner of the room, buy a triangular ferret litter box to put there, put down a piece of vinyl that is much easier to clean than carpet, or use puppy training pads if your ferret won't tear them up.
Just like with a cat or dog, owning a ferret can require a lot of work to keep your house from smelling like your pet, and if you also have dogs and cats, your carpet has plenty of challenges with stains and odors. Quick daily cleaning combined with regular professional carpet cleaning is the best way to keep your home free from pet odors.