I know this is an ancient thread, but in case anyone comes across this thinking a mink is a cute alternative to a ferret & gets one, I want to make this apparent: They are nothing alike.
If female ferrets go unspayed they die eventually from anaemia, if mink go unspayed/neutered they are just fine.
Ferrets stink, mink don't (unless they spray from the gland under their tail in excitement).
Mink are larger, especially the males, & far more powerful.
Some ferrets like baths and water, some don't, mink are more closely related to otters & *need* a deep pool to swim in daily.
Ferrets are sociable & love being kept in groups. Mink are extremely territorial & will kill any mink, ferret, cat or small dog that comes into their territory.
Mink love to climb! As in, up your curtains, onto your mantel and windowsills, prepare to have everything knocked over, broken & never open a window again.
Ferrets actually aren't great hunters, they were domesticated to flush out rabbits into nets for people to kill, & can only be used for ratting a few times before they become too scared & refuse to go down the burrow. Mink can & given the chance will hunt without any training at a young age & are basically fearless, you cannot train them out off it. On the contrary, if trained they are excellent hunters.
While both can be descented, it is a very dangerous & unnessecary risk to the animals. Descenting is the removal of a gland under the tail which is used when the animal is in pain, fear or feeling aggressive (less common than the other two, but still happens). A domesticated animal has been selectively bred to have a lower adrenaline level - meaning it doesn't feel that fear that a more highly strung wild animal would in a home environment. So a mink is able to "squirt" this foul stench every time it freaks out. Which could be every time the doorbell rings, the phone calls, someone bursts out laughing... Hard to live with, trust me.
Mink are extremely unpredictable. A bottle raised baby might bond with you, but will still attack anyone it doesn't recognise - there is NO WAY IN HELL you can bring it into schools! Trust me, I love mink, love living with them... But I would never let anyone hold one without understanding they could do everything right & still get their fingers broken or need stitches.
You also have to deal with animal rights activists. People are wierd with wild animals as pets - some people want to see them as puppies & kittens in fancy coats, some people hate them being kept in captivity.. You will almost never have someone who respects & likes your mink for being a mink. Not a toy, a baby, a monster, a vicious animal... Just a mink.
Also diet! Ferrets are actually pretty happy with high quality kibble, but mink need fresh meat and fish, they cannot digest that kibble mush. You'll need to buy a mixture of organ, flesh & whole prey food for them, that means rats, mice, chicks, rabbits. They need to chew all those bones & feathers/fur for roughage. No worries though, you can buy them frozen from reptile pet shops. Not cheap though :/
They can be litter tray trained which is such a relief because what they leave behind... well wow it smells much stronger than cat or dog, just bleh xD
Then theres pine martens, which have a lot of the same problems, but actually like a little more plant matter in their diet, & instead of the typical mink aggression they're really more shy. They prefer hiding away up high. So you'll need a lot of high shelves & boxes up high for it to hide away in. Also martens are much larger so their bite is worse, buuut they're less likely to bite. You won't find any breeders though, so I'm not sure of where you'd get one. the pet ones I know were bought from trappers at a young age. As in, their mothers had to be killed in order to collect them. Not sure of where that would fit into your rescue plan. My friend only bought her's because the trapper she knew didn't intend to harvest a baby too, he really only wanted adult animals but ended up with this kit too after the mother was killed. It's also worth mentioning that wildlife rescues don't sell their animals as pets, they're legally restrained from doing so. If an animal cannot be released it is almost always killed instead.
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Originally Posted by frothingmagpies
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