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Lrptls
12-11-04, 08:34 PM
YAY i finally got my ferrets!!!

i got the first one on a friday and because i couldnt aford the second, i had to wait a week until i got the other. the boy plays really rough though, he'll tackle the girl, bite her ears, her mouth, yank on her fur, she usually doesn't do any thing but sometimes she squeals and then i punish him (usually by scruffing him and saying no) i'm not sure if i should do any thing else, right now i'm mainly hoping he'll calm down a little. she will bite him back and her bites are much stronger than his.

another current problem-biting! they constantly bite me, not just my hands but every where. when they bite my sleeves they will tug them like they are playing so i don't do any thing about it. also when i play with them i keep my sleeves over my hands so they intentionly bite the sleeves instead. but when they see skin they bite and i yell "no" but that never really works. sometimes i push them a little and they run away to do something else but sometimes they really like that and it becomes a cool game. they are very young though, around 7 weeks suposedly, is there really anything i can do to help stop biting? or are they just in that stage where they sort of need to bite every thing for their teeth (teething and testing things)

other than that they are great and i have never had more fun with any type of animal. i had no problem liter training them or any thing else. i'm just worried if i'm going to have crazy biteing ferrets. =\

oh yeah, one more thing, they dont have names yet....some suggestions would be cool. if it helps, the boy is a panda (light brown) and the girl is white with bits of grey. thanks alot =)

marisa
12-11-04, 08:39 PM
Young ferrets bite about as often as kittens, if not far more! So it's definitly a stage of sorts.

You must curb this behaviour now though, or else it continues later in life. A strong "No!" and possibly a grab by the scruff the of the neck is the best way. By grab the scruff I don't mean abusively. I simply would yell NO! And pick the ferret up by his scruff for a few seconds. Also "time outs" can work. If the ferret bites you can say "NO" very loud, then simply place them in their cage for 15 minutes. Eventually they get the idea.

:D Congrats! Ferrets are neat!

Marisa

Lrptls
12-11-04, 08:44 PM
i find myself scruffing them alot actually, for biting me constantly or when the boy hurts the girl, so the boy gets scruffed a whole lot more. he has also had time outs but i dont think he has an attention span because he forgets every thing and any thing that JUST happend. and bitter apple does NOT work on him.

silent_truth
12-11-04, 08:57 PM
Hi! you mentioned that you got one before the other. Did you get the male ferret first? The dominant ferret, often being the first, will put other ferrets through a bit of rough treatment for a short while until a hierarchy is clearly established. This is done for every new ferret that is introduced into the group. So I wouldn't break the two of them up unless he is drawing blood from the female, because it will just prolong the process of establishing the hierarchy.

As far as biting humans is concerned, this has to be corrected while they are young. It doesn't happen over night, but being consistent is the key. Some say a light "flick" on the nose is excessive, but I found that it didn't do any physical harm to my ferrets, nor did it harm the level of trust between them and I. Just a light flick on the end of the nose everytime the ferret bites really gets their attention and they almost always let go immediately. Do this consistently and you shouldn't have a problem biter for long. The other method that was mentioned is scruffing. This simulates what a mother ferret would do to take control of her young. While I found this technique helps if the ferrets have done something other than biting, it didn't work for me when biting needed to be corrected.

I would recommend using either of these techniques, whichever one you're comfortable with and stick with it.

For names, since you mentioned that one has colours of a panda and the other has speckling....maybe Bear and Pepper?

Goodluck with the ferrets and if you have any more questions, please feel free to ask. I really enjoy discussing them.

-Adam

Lrptls
12-11-04, 09:06 PM
that i havn't tried yet! i really didn't think about flicking, i will definetly try that, not hard though, dont want to hurt my babies that hurt me lol. i also read in my book that hissing works because ferrets hiss at each other when one does something wrong, i will try that too.

and i also didn't think about the male wanting to be dominant, i didn't think he would do that because hes so little but i supose it doesn't matter, he is a boy.

something else i want to add, when i play with my ferrets i sort of wrestle with them with my sleeves over my hands, they really enjoy it but it is promoting them to bite. should i stop this or wrestle with them in a different way, maybe use a stuffed animal or something?

silent_truth
12-11-04, 10:04 PM
yep, you can use a stuffed animal that is safe for pet use. I'd probably discontinue playing with them using your sleeves at least until they learn not to bite your hands.

Also, two out of the three ferrets currently in my house really enjoy the hard plastic egg found inside "Kinder Surprise". The plastic egg is too big for them to fit in their mouths and slippery enough that they can't keep a handle on it for very long. Plus the added bonus is that you can eat the chocolate before you give your ferrets their new toy! heheheh. I wouldn't use the little toy inside the egg though, as those are too small and would probably get chewed up and possibly swallowed, but the hard plastic egg itself is awesome!

Cardboard boxes with a hole cut in the side also make for great fun. Most cat toys make great toys for ferrets as well.

-Adam

mykee
12-12-04, 12:27 AM
I agree, there are only two methods that worked for us when we trained our female out of biting and these were to gently flick her nose when she bit, not hard, but they REALLY don't like it. Teh second method was to spray her with water in an atomizer. Both methods worked well, and if you are consistent with your training, it won't take long to train them out of biting completely. After two weeks of having our ferret in or home, she no longer bit.