I'm a little backed up on my fml, so i think I missed alot of the
conversation concerning thumping your ferrets.  Now before anyone gets mad
I'm not here to tell anyone they are wrong, just tell my experience with
thumping.  I recently got 3 new fuzzies from a shelter, they were a family
and they were having a hard time getting them a home because the girls
(daisy and chloe) who were a yr old were toe bitters, the shelter said the
people that brought them in said they had drawn blood.  They problem was
everyone wanted Odie the silver guy (he is gorgeous) but not the girls.  I
decided to give it a go.  I brought them home and sure enough the girls
were toe bitters and ankle and leg *laugh* and they bit hard.  none of my
other fuzzies had bitten (I got them older) a friend of mine gave me the
well meaning advice to flick them on the nose.  So I started flicking them
on the nose.  While it did deter them from bitting I realized it was from
fear and nothing else Chloe would actually flinch when you got your hand
ready for flicking.  So I immediately stopped flicking and made it clear
to friends and family that was not acceptable behavior for us humans to
display.  I started giving alot more love to the girls, letting them out
more durring the day and cuddling them and praising them when they didn't
bite me.  Now sure my girls if they get really wound up will still run over
and once in awhile durring chase will nip a toe but generally it is soft,
and all I have to do is say heeeey when they come up and they will dook and
climb in your lap with a toy.  So just in my experience when I stopped
flicking, the behavior got better and now the girls and I are very close.
Chloe loves as a matter of fact to ride mommies leg *laugh*.  So it just
dosen't make sense to me to hurt something you love.
[Posted in FML issue 3062]