>... On Saturday, my elderly mother came to visit... She was sitting on a
>chair, and he came up, sniffed at her leg, and then bit her ankle twice,
>hard.  She was wearing tights (= pantyhose), which I never wear - I think
>he's only seen me in trousers.  We prised him off her leg and stopped the
>bleeding.  Fortunately, her leg seems OK... My concern is that I have so
>little experience of ferrets that I have no idea why this happened.  It
>doesn't seem like aggression to me.  Curiosity?  Play?  Do many ferrets
>bite hard now and then?... is it likely to happen again?
 
Alison,
 
Congratulations on having Baldrick join your family.  It sounds like you
are pretty perceptive with your conjectures as they are pretty much right
on the mark.  Baldrick was likely excited to be in a new area and the
combination of the tights and what appeared to be bare skin made him forget
his manners.  The double bite sounds very much like an invitation to play -
the problem is that Baldrick hasn't learned that human skin is more
delicate than ferret skin and hasn't learned to adjust his invitations
accordingly.  As you well know being a vet, all animals have their own
languages that include vocalizations, body language, and even movement.
Ferrets are no different.  A bite and run is usually an invitation to play
tag - much like a child running past another on the playground and crying
"Tag - you're it." A bite and hold is usually the invitation to a tug of
war game.  Almost all ferret games between each other includes biting and
eventually rolling around on the floor.  Some ferrets - my experience has
been that most ferrets learn the fine art of play nipping with humans.
But, the truth is that some don't.  When Whizzer the famous Lithuanian
Mountain Land Otter was alive (Whizzer was huge - weighing in at slightly
over 9.5 pounds), he would get so excited when playing that he forgot his
size and strength and ended up biting much harder than he intended to do.
He didn't mean any harm, he just forgot his own strength.  Sounds like you
had a similar situation with Baldrick.
 
I do have one question - was Baldrick named for the dogsbody in the
Blackadder series?  If he was, watch out for the turnips.
 
Scott
[Posted in FML issue 2969]