The femur (thigh bone) is long and straight, but the tibia (shin bone) is the longest bone of the leg. The bones of the rear legs are also very light, but they are longer than the bones of the front arm. The short, bowed arms and five claws are very good for digging. The ferret walks on all five digits, which is different than dogs and cats. The nails are not retractable like cat nails are, so these need to be trimmed occasionally. The radius and ulna (forearm) are slightly bowed. The bones of the front arms are light and short. Overall the vertebral column is long and very flexible, which allows a ferret to go into a narrow tunnel, do a U-turn and come back out. The tail is roughly one third of the length of the ferret body. The tail is composed of 18 vertebras that get smaller in size as they go toward the tip of the tail. The lumbar vertebrae generally get bigger in size from the first to the last one. The lumbar area (lower back) usually has six vertebrae, but there can be as few as five or as many as seven in some ferrets. For comparison, humans have only 12 thoracic vertebras with 12 pairs of ribs. This last rib is often palpable at the end of the rib cage. In some ferrets the last pair of ribs may be shorter than the rest and end in the muscles on the sides. Normally the first 10 pairs of ribs attach to the sternum (chest bone), and the last five pairs join each other and form an arch. Some even have 14 ribs on one side and 15 on the other side. The chest (thorax) usually has 15 vertebrae with paired ribs (30 total ribs) however, some ferrets only have 14 paired ribs. This gives the ferret a long neck when compared to its body size. The seven vertebrae in the neck are longer and bigger than the vertebrae of the chest. The vertebral column of the ferret is also unique. The brain case is rather large compared to the size of the skull. All of these adaptations make for a very strong bite, which is especially important for catching and eating prey animals. The jaws are short and are almost impossible to dislocate. The skull of the ferret is almost twice as long as it is wide, and the top of the skull is somewhat flat when compared to other mammals. In the adult ferret the individual bones of the skull are hard to tell apart because there are no fusion lines between the bones. The heterotopic skeleton is made up of the kneecaps, the fabella in a tendon of the rear legs and, in males, the os penis.
The appendicular skeleton is made up of the bones of the front arms, rear legs, shoulders and pelvis. The axial skeleton is made up of the skull, vertebrae, ribs and sternum. The skeleton can be divided into three main parts. These bones are similar to most other mammals including humans, but there are some unique differences specific to ferrets. The ferret skeletal system is made up of roughly 200 bones.
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