I have no earthly idea how a ferret can dook when they can't hear a
dook.  Odd huh?  But they do.  I've noticed that often times however,
the dooks are not "normal".  For example a deaf ferret may seem to dook
inappropriately (maybe they are talking nonsense ferretese?) around other
ferrets, and they look at them and react to them a bit differently
because of this.  They may dook incessantly, or the opposite.  I find
this a lot... that they either vocalize more than usual, or are the
opposite being almost mute.  I've also had many people write to me that
when a ferret is upset, or when it is excited playing with other ferrets,
that they are quite loud in vocalizations.  They have been reported to
even "screech" when they are not even hurt.
 
If you think about it, people that are hearing impaired (remember
that profound, total deafness is quite unusual compared to hearing
impairment... most can "hear" something) need to be taught appropriate
volume when they are tots.  In addition, they don't know what laughter or
crying sounds like exactly either, so it may sound different to us when
they do vocalize.  If a child were left to his own devices, with little
to no awareness that he were deaf would he not be vocalizing too loud,
too much, and nonsensically?  This has been found with "wild children"
that are deaf in our history (children that have been completely isolated
due to neglect or just misfortune).  Also I think that the opposite has
been found... muteness.  Though that may be a whole different ballpark.
 
Hey what am I doing here?  I'm not an expert.  We need to hear from an
audiologist or speech pathologist on this topic!  lol.
 
Wolfy
 
Please visit:
http://www.geocities.com/wolfysluv/
for information on ferret deafness:
http://www.geocities.com/wolfysluv/deaf.html
[Posted in FML issue 3891]