Light & dark
Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 7:07 amFerrets are crepuscular, which means their main periods of activity are at dawn and dusk.
While they do sleep many hours a day, and often adapt their schedule to match when their owner is around, when given the chance (ie given a large enough living area to be active) ferrets are active for short bursts every couple of hours throughout the day and night.
Natural day/night cycles in Europe (where ferrets evolved) are around 14-16 hours of daylight and 8-10 hours of darkness in Summer, and around 8-10 hours daylight / 14-16 hours darkness in Winter.
When living in our homes, they are often exposed to more light than this per day as we keep our homes artificially lit into the night.
Increased exposure to light has recently been theorized to be linked to the development of adrenal disease.
It has been suggested that limiting the amount of light our ferrets receive to the amount they would naturally receive may be beneficial and help prevent adrenal disease.
This suggestion has further led to a recommendation that we feel is extremely ill-informed and potentially dangerous - that the more darkness a ferret receives, the better. Hence someone keeping their ferrets in complete darkness 24 hours a day is doing a good thing for their ferrets.
Also, rather than allowing the animal to seek out provided dark areas at their choice, this recommendation is often accompanied by the recommendation to FORCE darkness on them by confining them to somewhere that can be kept completely dark (such as a cage with a blanket over it).
No animal expect cave dwellers, deep sea creatures, and nocturnal burrowers receive NO light.
Ferrets are domesticated from an animal which definitely does receive exposure to sunlight. For this reason we feel it is not beneficial to restrict ferrets to complete darkness! Providing access to darkness is probably beneficial, but providing access to light may also be beneficial.
Polecats in the wild are active at dawn and dusk (which is far from complete darkness) and they have also been known to be active in the middle of the day - when sunlight exposure is at it's highest.
The photo above shows a family of polecats hunting in broad daylight. Photo from Vincent Wildlife Trust.
So how much darkness should I give my ferrets?
Providing dark areas is probably beneficial (so they can choose to be in darkness if they wish), this does not mean that more darkness = better!
Ideally they would live outside and have access to natural light cycles - real sunlight or dark areas during the day (and be able to choose which one they would like to be in at any point throughout the day - just as they do in the wild) and darkness at night.
For most owners this isn't practical, so we recommend:
* providing OPTIONAL access to completely dark areas such as sleeping boxes
and
* providing OPTIONAL access to real sunlight by giving your ferrets access to a ferret-proofed outdoor area, taking them for regular outdoor walks, and/or leaving windows open to allow real light inside your home (with a flyscreen to prevent escapes).
This way the ferret can choose how much light or darkness they receive per 24 hours, just as they would naturally. We feel this is the most sensible and foolproof method.
In summary, it is probably a good idea to avoid forcing ferrets to be exposed to excessive light, but the solution to this is not to force darkness on them, but instead to provide OPTIONAL light areas and dark areas.
Artificial Light v Sunlight
Real sunlight emits a full spectrum of rays including UV.
The artificial lights in our homes do not emit UV.
UV cannot penetrate glass or thick mesh very well, so sunlight through a closed window also does not contain UV (in any significant amounts).
Special UV globes are manufactured for reptile keepers, as reptiles get sick if they are not provided with enough UV rays.
It is not known whether UV is important to ferrets - more research is needed in this area.
However, because ferrets would naturally encounter some UV, it is sensible to provide them with access to real sunlight (as well as access to darkness) when we keep them in captivity, until more is known.
A comparison
Nocturnal frogs are often kept without special UV gloves, as people assume they receive no UV in the wild (being active only at night).
Frog researchers now recognise that this may not be the best way to go, as nocturnal frogs do receive some exposure to UV - ie. they do not live in complete darkness.
from the Amphibian Research Centre:
While they do sleep many hours a day, and often adapt their schedule to match when their owner is around, when given the chance (ie given a large enough living area to be active) ferrets are active for short bursts every couple of hours throughout the day and night.
Natural day/night cycles in Europe (where ferrets evolved) are around 14-16 hours of daylight and 8-10 hours of darkness in Summer, and around 8-10 hours daylight / 14-16 hours darkness in Winter.
When living in our homes, they are often exposed to more light than this per day as we keep our homes artificially lit into the night.
Increased exposure to light has recently been theorized to be linked to the development of adrenal disease.
It has been suggested that limiting the amount of light our ferrets receive to the amount they would naturally receive may be beneficial and help prevent adrenal disease.
This suggestion has further led to a recommendation that we feel is extremely ill-informed and potentially dangerous - that the more darkness a ferret receives, the better. Hence someone keeping their ferrets in complete darkness 24 hours a day is doing a good thing for their ferrets.
Also, rather than allowing the animal to seek out provided dark areas at their choice, this recommendation is often accompanied by the recommendation to FORCE darkness on them by confining them to somewhere that can be kept completely dark (such as a cage with a blanket over it).
No animal expect cave dwellers, deep sea creatures, and nocturnal burrowers receive NO light.
Ferrets are domesticated from an animal which definitely does receive exposure to sunlight. For this reason we feel it is not beneficial to restrict ferrets to complete darkness! Providing access to darkness is probably beneficial, but providing access to light may also be beneficial.
Polecats in the wild are active at dawn and dusk (which is far from complete darkness) and they have also been known to be active in the middle of the day - when sunlight exposure is at it's highest.
The photo above shows a family of polecats hunting in broad daylight. Photo from Vincent Wildlife Trust.
So how much darkness should I give my ferrets?
Providing dark areas is probably beneficial (so they can choose to be in darkness if they wish), this does not mean that more darkness = better!
Ideally they would live outside and have access to natural light cycles - real sunlight or dark areas during the day (and be able to choose which one they would like to be in at any point throughout the day - just as they do in the wild) and darkness at night.
For most owners this isn't practical, so we recommend:
* providing OPTIONAL access to completely dark areas such as sleeping boxes
and
* providing OPTIONAL access to real sunlight by giving your ferrets access to a ferret-proofed outdoor area, taking them for regular outdoor walks, and/or leaving windows open to allow real light inside your home (with a flyscreen to prevent escapes).
This way the ferret can choose how much light or darkness they receive per 24 hours, just as they would naturally. We feel this is the most sensible and foolproof method.
In summary, it is probably a good idea to avoid forcing ferrets to be exposed to excessive light, but the solution to this is not to force darkness on them, but instead to provide OPTIONAL light areas and dark areas.
Artificial Light v Sunlight
Real sunlight emits a full spectrum of rays including UV.
The artificial lights in our homes do not emit UV.
UV cannot penetrate glass or thick mesh very well, so sunlight through a closed window also does not contain UV (in any significant amounts).
Special UV globes are manufactured for reptile keepers, as reptiles get sick if they are not provided with enough UV rays.
It is not known whether UV is important to ferrets - more research is needed in this area.
However, because ferrets would naturally encounter some UV, it is sensible to provide them with access to real sunlight (as well as access to darkness) when we keep them in captivity, until more is known.
A comparison
Nocturnal frogs are often kept without special UV gloves, as people assume they receive no UV in the wild (being active only at night).
Frog researchers now recognise that this may not be the best way to go, as nocturnal frogs do receive some exposure to UV - ie. they do not live in complete darkness.
from the Amphibian Research Centre:
Nocturnal frogs do not necessarily get no UV in the wild!!
At ARC we use the following rule: If a species could naturally have access to UV then you must supply it for them in captivity. We may occasionally waste a UV globe, but we are hardly likely to do any harm as any animal who is naturally exposed to UV will have mechanisms for ensuring the correct exposure for their species.