I recently took in another baby ferret.  After a quarantine period, I let
her romp with the other three ferts.  They seemed to all get along, the
baby would be picked on, then pick on someone else, but not aggresively,
just playfully.  They've all been in the same cage ever since.  One day,
their food dish got down to just scraps that apparently they couldn't be
bothered to eat.  When I filled the food dish, the baby ferret decided
she owned it, and kicked the other ferrets away rather forcefully and was
very vocal.  After a few times of telling her no, we decided to separate
her from the others, set her in a different part of the cage with some
food and she ate like she'd never seen food before.  She even started
choking on her food.  Well, after that, the other three ferts kinda kept
their distance for a few days, then I'd see them sleeping with her again.
Now, she seems to be trying to boss them around in other ways too.
They'll be walking around, and she'll jump on their back as if to pin
them down, they want no part of it, and get away as soon as they can.  Is
there something I should be doing when I see this behavior?  Should she
be separate from the others after all?  I don't want her to spend her
cage time by herself, but is she necessarily going to get along with
someone around her age?  (The others are around 1 year old, she's a few
months)
 
Thanks everyone for all your help the past year with all my fert issues...
 
May all of you have happy holidays...
Alayne Avery (with Sierra, Angel, Emily & (bossy) Caitlynn)
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[Posted in FML issue 4372]