Un-stashed!!

[Flobo]

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Thought I'd have a bit of a tidy up of all the places where my ferrety boys do their stashing. Quite a hoard as you can see!! A lot was squirreled away behind daughters bed, in corners, behind cupboards, on things, under things or in things etc...

Think they are going to be busy later re-stealing and re-hiding everything!!

Monkey is still Iggy's favourite and the stress strawberry Goose has been ironically stressing about and keeps moving it in case we steal it back!
But still no sign of the tv remote that Sid stole many moons ago now, baffling...

 

[JudyN]

What fun they're going to have sorting that lot out again

 

[Tinytom]

That's hilarious...love reading your stories xxx

 

[Hemlock]

My word! I bet the house has just breathed out. Aren't you lovely to give them all those toys and understand the stashing need?!

 

[Flobo]

It was funny, took them a few minutes to realize they'd been busted and their cache was on display!

They both did cherry pick their favourite things first to run off with and hide again. Iggy was quite methodical and one by one he took an object(the soft toys are all his doing) and tried to find new and unusual places to hide stuff. Goose on the other hand was almost panicked to see all his loot on display, so he grabbed and ran quick sharp, but sadly he's not as imaginative as Iggy and always re hides in the same couple of places!

They are both quite particular in what they like to steal, Iggy as I said loves soft toys, slippers and tennis balls, Goose loves more rubbery things, weirdly..

 

[Flobo]

Aren't you lovely to give them all those toys

To be fair, all those toys were(or are) my daughters, she stores(or tries to store) them in a drawer under her bed because she can't get rid of them. Unfortunately the boys can get in there from behind the bed and steal them!!
But yes I do supply some steal worthy things for them as they do love it. I got Goose a bag of rubber goldfish for xmas this year which he loves, I do wonder if he has ocd leanings though as when he hides them in his pink plastic castle they are all perfectly lined up!

 

[JudyN]

Do you know if this collecting/hiding has any equivalent in the wild? Do wild mustelids hide food to eat later?

 

[Flobo]

I'm not entirely sure on that. Being carnivores the food stash would spoil quite soon, when I've given them mice Goose will hide his in the bed, uhhrr, which is kinda gross! Neither have progressed to eating them yet, though Sid used to love them!
I tend to think that ferrets have just always liked to steal stuff, hence their name meaning 'little thief'... But I may be wrong, they may well stash food on a short term? Anyone else know??

 

[JudyN]

hence their name meaning 'little thief'...

Ah, like 'lurcher' is Romany for 'thieving cur' - ferrets must be the lurchers of the rodent world!

 

[Hemlock]

Ssssh - mustelids!

Perhaps their niche in the wild world is to stash food for other species to find....?

 

[JudyN]

Ssssh - mustelids!

My mistake - I thought maybe mustelids were a subfamily (or genus or whatever) within rodents. It's because I think of them as elongated rats!

 

[Flobo]

Rats and ferrets are mortal enemies!!

'lurcher' is Romany for 'thieving cur'

Brilliant, didn't know that! But have known a few thieving lurchers in my time

Thought I'd add just one pic of the boys snoozing last night after their busy evening re-stashing...

 

[Flobo]

Just re discovered this thread, to my shame it's a year, it seems, since my last stash sweep!!

The obvious places do get checked prior to a dog staying as they can smell a ball or soft toy a mile away... I did, however, not find Goose's strawberry once and while I was busy hoovering one day, I turned around to see the dog I had staying happily laying on her bed surrounded by many little bits of yellow foam!
Luckily there was a chunk left that was just about worth keeping and thankfully, to Goose, some strawberry is better than no strawberry!
We've been trying to teach him to 'spin' for his toy for the last few months...and finally, just 2 days ago, the penny dropped!! Now he will spin with just a word prompt, without the added action, very proud of him. Though this morning while they were waiting for their Saturday egg yolks, Goose was looking up at me and then doing a spin,(with no verbal prompt), he did it about 3 times! So think he associates the spin with getting something he really wants... hmm, communication is communication I suppose, will have to see where this leads us!

The toy sweep is a coming, but not today as the rugby is about to start!

 

[Tinytom]

I love your updates and cannot believe its been year...ferrets are so bloody clever....

 

[Flobo]

They are clever indeed!
I'm endeavouring to teach Iggy a 'roll' now. It is a move he does already, having more of a roly poly body type, usually when he's playing with monkey... so I roll him(gently!) and say the word as I do it... at the moment he is still looking at me with utter confusion and a 'what the hell did you do that for' expression, so this may take a while! I'll keep you all posted

Just an extra little thing to have a look at if you get a few mins, heart warming!