Shirley Chong, who is a wonderful dog trainer, mentioned she like to
rehabilite biters.  She posted about training ferrets.  She gave me
permission to cross post with a note:
 
> Just make sure to emphasize that I have very little experience with
> ferrets.  I do have a lot of dog training experience and I have
> rehabbed feral cats, which was the basis for my speculative ideas on
> conditioning fear biting deaf ferrets.
 
here is her reply:
 
>Hey Shirley - have you tried to train a ferret not to bite?  Some deaf
>ferrets stay fear biters all their lives.  There are several people on
>the ferret list that try to train ferrets not to bite people.  Ferrets
>have SHARP little teeth ...
 
I've liked the ferrets I've met owned by friends and the little nips
they've given me haven't been bad but none of those ferrets were fear
biters.
 
Unfortunately my mother is quite allergic to ferrets, to the extent that
if I've been in a ferret owner's house one day and then wear the same
coat to my mother's place the next day, her throat swells up and she has
difficulty breathing.  So keeping ferrets myself is out of the question.
My dogs would disown me without regular trips to see Santa GrandmaPaws.
 
My best guess is that deaf ferrets probably get startled too often,
which can make any animal (including humans) much more defensive and
likely to bite.  Sooooo, I'd work on classically conditioning a startle
to be associated with good stuff, particularly food.  Start with little
startles relatively far away from the ferret and shower the ferret with
food for each startle.  Over a period of weeks, keep moving the startle
closer and closer to the ferret while showering the ferret with food.
When the ferret starts to drool when startled, the trainer's goal has
been accomplished.
 
In the meantime, I'd also teach the ferret to enjoy being handled via a
number of different implements--tongs, a dowel, a backscratcher, whatever
else seems appropriate.  That way if the handler makes a mistake, the
ferret can bite and learn that biting isn't getting them what they want.
 
This is all speculation, though, since I haven't done much ferret
handling and no ferret training.
 
M. Shirley Chong
http://www.shirleychong.com
 
Nan and Jubal and Early
[Posted in FML issue 5099]