I bought a ferret (weaned, litter box trained) about two weeks ago. I had
looked through several books and thought the pet would be a good one for my
family (I have an 8 year old child and live in Pittsburgh so it is
difficult to have a larger animal). The ferret is extremely cute and my
son loves it.
 
I knew that ferrets could bite, but have become even more concerned
about this since we have had it. All the little ferret does is bite. I
know the trick about thumping the ferret in his nose when he bites. We
have also purchased some Green Apple and that helps some. A
veterinarian who lives on our street says that he refuses to treat
ferrets because of this problem and he does not believe that they make
good pets.
 
[nonsense]
 
How can I deal with the biting. I would like to keep the ferret if we
can find some way of preventing this problem. Will it get worse when
the ferret is grown? ...
 
 
[Well...  Some comments:
 
        0) Is it male or female?  How old?
 
        1) I strongly recommend that anyone buying a ferret should handle
           it before purchasing.  If it's a baby (3-6 weeks or so), biting
           isn't particularly uncommon - the poor little thing is nervous
           about moving objects as big as you.  Move *slowly*, make sure
           that the ferret sees you *before* picking it up, etc.
 
           You should pick one that appears to "take to you", and manages
           to relax and at least be curious about you.  In our case, the
           two babies that we have gotten chose us, and didn't nip either
           one of us.  Since then, one of them (the male) *never* bit, but
           the female has turned into a sock grabber when she wants attention
           or we're roughhousing - a nuisance, but not a serious problem.
 
        2) Most baby ferrets *will* grow out of biting.  When the ferret gets
           to be around 6-8 months old, because you have an 8-year-old, if
           it's still biting you will then have to assess the situation.
           Eg:
                - does it *play* with you or your family?  Or does it simply
                  seem to want to escape?
                - do the bites hurt?
                - does it draw blood?
 
           If there are too many "yesses" for your comfort, you probably should
           try to see if you can find someone who doesn't mind the nipping to
           take it off your hands - you owe it at least to try to find another
           home for it.  Advertise in the paper.  Don't mention the nipping
           (or only obliquely) in your ad, but do inform prospective buyers
           when you speak to them.  We, for example, could temporarily
           provide a home for a unrepentent nipper if no other home could be
           found - we're not offering in this case though, there's a new
           human baby arriving within 3 weeks....
 
        3) There's two basic reasons for biting: attention getting or
           fear.  If you think it may be the latter, be gentle and avoid
           situations that may lead to biting - the ferret will eventually
           trust you.  If the former, discipline is required.
 
        4) It's important to consistently react to bad behaviour.  As I see
           it you have two choices:
 
                - consider all biting bad
                - consider hard biting bad
 
           We basically chose the latter route and have had good success with
           our one biter.  Most ferrets will learn that hard biting is not
           good if you yell at it every time it does.  We've also used
           medium-strength finger flicks on the rump or hitting with a few
           sheets of paper rolled up.  Tapping a ferret on the nose may be
           counter-productive - just drives the teeth in further ;-}
           Try to avoid wearing gloves - they won't associate it with a
           fellow animal, and you'd not be able to judge how hard it's biting.
 
        5) *Don't* even dream of getting a second ferret until the first one
           gets over its biting habits.
 
        6) Spaying may help with males, but this is not an option until it's
           at least 8 months or so.
]
 
Will the ferret be dangerous to my family?
 
[As with *all* pets, the ferret should be supervised when in contact with
strangers or very young children, or your child until you find you can trust
it and your child to be able to coexist peacefully.  If after several months
you find that you still can't trust it with your child, I think you're going to
have to find it a new home.]
 
Could I have gotten one of the ferrets that has an hereditary tendency to
bite?
 
[Some specific individuals won't grow out of biting.  Fortunately they're rare.]
 
What is the best book on ferrets?
 
["Ferrets" by Chuck and Fox Morton.  Publisher Barrons.  "Ferrets" by Wendy
Winsted is a close second.]
 
[Once it's grown up some and learned to trust you to provide it with a warm
bed, food, treats, water, toys and playtime, I'm sure it will come around...
Do you know about linotone?]
 
You can post this on your mailing list also, if that is possible. I would
like to know how others deal with biting. Thanks!  --ED
 
[How do you think items get into the mailing list? - by mailing 'em to me!]
                                                                          
[Posted in FML 0064]