Flicking the nose will never help. In fact, that is the ONE thing that
you can do to make a ferret hate you. And it's hard to make a ferret
hate people. Just do scruffing, say no, and hold the ferret there until
they are bored. This will make them want to avoid biting you because it
interrupts there free time/play time in such a way that they are really
conscious of - rather than "time outs" in the cage. If the ferret comes
after you after you set him or her down, continue scruffing until the
ferret walks away and leaves you alone. This could take a long, long
time depending on how determined and stubborn the ferret is.

I had a ferret who would continue to come after me. So I started to
scoop her up and carry her around in a way that she couldn't bite me.
She soon learned that coming after me meant "boring time" because she
wouldn't be able to play with me carrying her. So when I saw her coming
after me, I went after her, and she'd run and go play. Also, if she
came at me, I would clap softly in front of her, and advance, making
her back off. I don't believe she means anything bad - but her biting
is clamping, blood-drawing, and she shakes when she bites, and doesn't
let go. Her teeth are very, very sharp and long. So avoidance is the
key with her.

In situations like that I recommend enrichment. Give lots of toys the
ferret actually LIKES. By giving distractions and things to hide,
hide in, climb, and explore, the ferrets attention will be off of the
people. Once the ferret is bored, it might come after people again.
Similarly, have some other ferret friends for your ferret to be
distracted with. If the girl I talked about earlier gets bored, I can
expect to have her come after me. It takes about half an hour to an
hour for her to start getting bored and I have to change things up
again.

Some things we need to know to help your friend is how old is the
ferret, how long has she had him, how long was he not biting her, and
what did he act like then (was he friendly? Giving kisses)? My guess -
and it's just a guess - is that she may have adopted him a few months
ago, and he has gotten used to everything, and is not staking out his
'territory'. Also, is he neutered or not?

All you can do for the time being is not give an opportunity to bite.
Give him free time, watch yourself, and don't interact too much. This
may be a ferret that only has a lot of interaction with other ferrets,
at least until he stops biting. We have always had one or two ferrets
that are just "look but don't touch", because they will bite you. The
first adoption, we had no clue the ferrets were like that. Then, the
other we brought in, we knew, and we just give her space. Sometimes I
try to get sleepy kisses from her when she wakes up. I realize I could
lose my lips or eyelids when I do this. But sometimes it's nice to get
ferret kisses from a ferret who, when fully awake, would bite you. I'm
a thrill seeker. LOL.

A quick aside to something that is very unlikely but I will mention it
anyway - a change to hard biting could mean the ferret is experiencing
pain. The few times I've been bit by a ferret who was not known to
bite, was when they had just had an accident, been beat up severely by
another ferret, or was trapped somehow and scared/in pain. This means
your friends ferret may have something wrong inside, a broken bone,
rib, anything (it could be anything, really).

However because she mentioned the licking, it sounds like it probably
is not pain induced.

But aside from that - some ferrets have been known to be fearful of
scents, or have a certain scent drive them crazy. It is not common from
what I can tell but sometimes you get a ferret who is very high strung.
Like the type who goes nuts and bites people's hands when they squeak a
squeaky toy. And by bite I mean very, very hard bites trying to either
stop the squeaking, (perhaps they are trying to save the "baby" since
I've only encountered this with females, who then start shaking
hysterically).

You will have people say all ferrets can be "taught". I disagree. Many
times people who say these things may not have come across a truly
unchangeable ferret. For the most part, that is true - most "hard
biters" may come around at some point - but if you work with a ferret
doing the normal stuff - scruffing, saying no, and carpet-dragging,
making them bored of biting you, you are simply teaching them to avoid
you, really, so just also avoid situations in which you will be bitten.
Don't expect a hard biter to be completely handle-able. Don't expect
kisses without bites. The ferret will have to do their part, and you
yours.

Laryssa

[Posted in FML 6209]