I have thee male ferrets and every year I try to take them hunting.
I ended up training them to catch and weave out mice and rabbits.

This year i cant go and they know its around this time we do go.
They are going crazy in their cages! When i let them out they start trying to dig tunnels and sprint around the house searching for the hunt.

Ive tried toys and so forth. but nothing is as good as the real thing.

Theres a women who sells meat rabbits down the road, I was thinking of buying one from her and maybe theyll be satisfied. My issue with that is the rabbit is of course not tame, but its also not wild. Its not fair for the rabbit.

Any ideas?

Could you tie a dead rabbit to a sting and have something pull it around?

Or a robot

Or some sort of remote controlled contraption

Uh. Alive? No i would never do that. Plus they would be able to tell.

they probably wouldn't care if they found a dead something, get like a frozen feeder mouse or something and thaw it, and hide it in a box in your house and let them search for it.

They really don't need the chance to kill something, plus it is putting them at risk to get hurt as well as the slow killing of a rabbit or mouse or rat.

DEAD rabbit or mouse or rat and have something move it around.

I don't think they would care if it was dead or not, I think just the stimulation and fun would be good enough for them.

I ended up buying some frozen rats and mice for them!
IT WORKED. Thank god. They finally calmed down.

Domesticated ferrets really shouldnt be taught to hunt, thats why they were domesticated!! For people to enjoy their often gentle and loving sides, not the "animal killing sides". I know that they do that IN THE WILD but captive animals shouldnt be taught that.

They are domestic and they were bred for hunting.

I understand that, but do you reallly want to run the risk higher for them becomone aggressive if someone who has recently touched a rabbit or another rat and handle your ferrets? You may say that they would never do that, but you honestly never know! Animals can and sometimes will, tunr on you at the most unexpected times......

Ugh, if they werent trained then yes. but they are well trained and can differentiate!

It might sound cruel, but when i used to have ferrets they woulg go hunting with my uncle alot. But when he died i couldnt take them out and they were going nuts about it.
So i tried giving them a gutted rabbit but they just ate it and kept on going crazy, so i realised they wanted the chase aspect.

My friend breeds feeder rats and they arent tame by any means.
I bought 4 big rats from him and released them in the garage and then the ferrets.
Within 2 minutes the rats were dead and being eaten.

Oh god

What? I seen no problem with hunting with trained ferrets. whats the big deal?