Many enjoy chewing items made of soft rubber, foam, or sponge, which present the risk of intestinal blockage and death if ingested. Serious and sometimes fatal injuries have resulted from ferrets chewing on electrical cords. Screen doors can be damaged by a ferret's claws, and dryer vents often become escape routes to the outdoors. Unlike dogs and cats, most ferrets have little homing instinct and cannot survive as strays, usually causing them to die of dehydration within a few days unless found.

Recliners are a leading cause of accidental death in ferrets. Ferrets will often climb inside the springs and can be injured or killed once the chair is put into a reclined position. Fold-out sofas cause similar problems.

For these reasons, steps must be taken to "ferret-proof" a home before acquiring one as a pet. Ferret-proofing a house is an ongoing task that involves carefully going through each room, removing items dangerous to ferrets and covering over any holes or potential escape routes.

As ferrets can open improperly latched cupboards or doors by rolling over and clawing at the bottom edge, many owners buy childproof latches or keep cleaning products in high, out-of-reach places. However, ferrets can typically fit through any hole as small as the size of their head, making some childproof latches ineffective.

Diet

Ferrets are obligate carnivores; the natural diet of their wild ancestors consisted of whole small prey--meat, organs, bones, skin, feathers, fur--not just meat.

Some ferret owners feed a meat-based diet consisting of whole prey like mice, rats and rabbits, along with other raw meat like chicken. This is preferred in Europe and Australia, and becoming increasingly popular in the US as concerns are raised about the high level of carbohydrate in some processed ferret foods. Australians also feed a lactose-free milk.

Alternatively there is a wide variety of commercial ferret foods available. Kitten foods can also be given, so long as they provide the high protein and fat content required by the ferret's metabolism. Most adult cat foods and many kitten foods are unsuitable for ferrets though, because of their low protein content. Ideally, a ferret food should contain 32-38% meat based protein and 15-20% fat. Low quality pet foods often contain grain-based proteins which ferrets cannot properly digest.

Ferrets often have a fondness for sweets like raisins, bananas, peanut butter, and pieces of cereal. Such treats should be given sparingly (if at all), as their high sugar content has been linked to insulinoma and other diseases. In fact, veterinarians suggest not feeding raisins and the like to ferrets at all because they are known to hide their food, raising the possibility of a ferret hiding a large amount of raisins over time and then dangerously consuming them all at once.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrets