Sorry folks,
But I have to chuckle at the naivete regarding jaw strength and biting
abilities of ferrets being expressed by quite a few "experienced"
ferret owners.
A ferret can and will bite a human hard enough to not just draw
blood, but damage deep tissue and scar bones! Especially if the ferret
has been abused, scared, mistreated, neglected or never has been
socialized. I've rehabbed several severe biters and two classified as
vicious! My nose has been pierced through the septum, lips pierced, had
a ferret do a sneak attack as I was napping and awoke as he bit through
my eyebrow and dangled! Veins have been punctured, knuckle bones
inflamed and bruised, and even had both hands stapled together when a
ferret clamped down on one hand and trying to get him loose he quickly
bit through both thumbs and a finger! Only running him under the water
faucet got him to let go! He has since stopped such vicious attacks and
is a regular smoocher and cuddler. But yes, a ferret easily has the
propensity to bite severely and damage human appendages!
Its a credit to their innate good nature that they DON'T routinely
damage the hands that feed and handle them!
Ferrets may be smaller than most cats and dogs but their skull and jaw
structure is MUCH different than those two carnivores! A ferret has
the jaw strength of a medium sized dog! That means your cute cuddly
snuggems with a jaw only 1 1/2" wide and deep has the same jaw strength
of a Border Collie or Dalmation!
Ferrets are cousins of the wolverine. Wolverines routinely crack
through moose and elk leg bones!
Like the wolverine; a ferrets jaws and skull are specifically designed
to crack open bones. They are fully physically capable of biting
through not merely a 4 month old baby's under-developed finger bones,
but they COULD easily crack through an adult's finger bones!
People who feed raw meaty bones witness this jaw capacity on a daily
basis. Chicken leg bones - no problem! Turkey wing bones - no trouble
at all. The entire carcass of a rabbit or cornish game hen not only
will get the bones cracked open but chomped and swallowed! Anyone who's
had children and seen the size of a 4 month old hand wrapped around
your finger- can easily picture the ability of a ferret to chomp
through those tiny appendages!
Now before ya'll get in an uproar- do I think for a minute that a
ferret would intentionally and successfully chew OFF the fingers of a
person or a baby? Firstly the ferret would HAVE to be starving and also
be acclimated to eating raw foods. A kibble fed ferret, not introduced
to raw meaty bones would NOT see human fingers as food - regardless
if those fingers were soaked with milk, mayo or butter! A kibble
conditioned ferret would likely starve to death before choosing to
begin devouring a live human!
Bite - yes- but bite OFF seven fingers from two hands? NOT A CHANCE!
I'm fairly certain that what will eventually come to light is that this
4 month old baby - who was left in a swing while the parents SUPPOSEDLY
slept - either managed to get his fingers pinched - or one of the
parents maliciously damaged the child and blamed it on the ferret. Was
it one of those mechanical swings that gets cranked up and racks back
and forth? Was it positioned incorrectly and with each swing the baby's
fingers were pinched, smashed or scraped? If the parents put the child
in the swing and it was already screaming and crying - then they left
it - "to cry itself to sleep" this scenario is perfectly plausible!
You'll have an impossible time convincing me that the ferret did this
much damage to both hands and attentive parents couldn't stop it after
the first painful piercing bite! Nope, not a chance!
All of my raw fed ferrets definitely know the difference between
human flesh and meaty food. Even the serious and vicious biters were
encouraged to be nice around hands by simply immersing my fingers in
butter, oils, ferretone and mayonnaise! The trigger for their former
biting was self preservation from being abused in former homes - or
frustration at being caged or punished - never was a bite followed
by an attempt to EAT my flesh!
This is a tragic situation. For the baby especially. To be maimed
permanently, irreversibly so young in life is just unthinkable. With
the feedback offered so far regarding the atrocious parenting and lack
of attentiveness displayed by these people's history - all I can hope
is that the authorities intervene and get the child away from them!
IN closing thoug, don't foll yourselves - your tiny ferret has
tremendous jaw strength, wicked sharp teeth and the ability to do
serious damage to humans - they simply choose NOT TO! Life is so
much more fun playing tag!
Cheers,
Kim
[Posted in FML 6945]
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