Hello,
 
I am writing about the biter.
 
>This ferret called Normie, we call him Vlad (the Impaler)(of Dracula
>fame) seems to relish going for the flesh whenever he can find an
>unsuspecting victim.
 
We have had Nikita for about 3 years and when we first brought her home,
she bit me so hard I think her teeth met under the skin on my forearm.
We talked about taking her back to the store we bought her at.  But, then
again, the reason we brought her home is because she was the biggest
ferret in the group at the store.  She was so overweight and depressed,
but was so beautiful.  She had had been trapped in a small cage with a
group of baby ferrets for about 3 months - the only thing to do would be
to take her home.  We decided to work with her...and...three years later,
we have figured out what causes her to do it and what to do to prevent
it.  She knows she shouldn't do it, because she bites and then hides.
We have discussed the possibility of her being a return from someone who
may have been abusive or may not have understood how to handle a ferret.
 
With a lot of patience, which means not getting mad at her when she
bites, she has actually learned to trust us and when we play now, she
will nip playfully.  HOWEVER, we are still very cautious and
underestimating her can be painful.
 
It has taken a lot of time, but we think we may have gotten her to mellow
out.  Don't you wish there were prozac for ferrets???
 
I hope this helps.
 
Tracy and the Gang
[Posted in FML issue 4404]