Yea, I did it - I have only 2 (TWO!) groups of ferrets! Oh, all the same
ferrets are here, all 7 of them, but instead of them being seperated 2, 2
and 3, there are now 3 and 4 ferrets per group.
Before we had Kouri and Welly as group 1, Milo and Neugi as group 2, and
the 3 girls, Angel, Cheyenne and Muffet were group 3. But Neugi and Muffet
had been together for over a year and really preferred each others company.
Plus, we have only 3 floor areas, and for major cleaning we had to put
ferrets into CAGES.
When Milo came to live with us at 16 weeks, he was intact, and Kouri did
not think having a LIVE intact male around was a good idea. Milo was
neutered the 1st of December and since then we've been trying to get the
3 big boys together - peaceably. Sunday was the first time I've put them
together without it getting real serious, real fast. Still, I didn't leave
the room, kinda standing over them, listening to the tone of the squeals.
I'm not sure anybody really 'won'. At one point Kouri started running
around, looking like he needed a place to hide and I thought it meant he
was afraid of Milo. But Milo wasn't pursuing Kouri, and I think maybe the
racing around was intended as 'I won, I won, I won'! Anyway, no blood was
let, nobody had rips or slashes, and they've been together ever since.
I have to admit that all day Monday I was worried about what might be going
on. I wanted to call home and ask them if everything was ok! That night I
grabbed them all immediately, counting body parts, peering at necks.
To make the adjustment as pleasant as possible, the barrier between 2 of
the areas has been raised (propped up by a water crock) to give the 3 boys
twice the floor space, and more places to get away from each other.
Oh, and during Kouri and Milo's little exercise in who got to be 'da boss',
Welly stayed out of it! He kept flinging himself, belly up, in the litter
box! Was there a message in his action?
As for Neugi, he seems quite happy to have all 3 girls to himself.
Georgia
[Posted in FML issue 3308]
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