> She's a B**ch!!!  She's hyperactive and is very anti-social.  She nips at
> everything and steals everything else.  My dog is consciously aware of her
> every move and has started to ignore Taz (male) completely.  Taz, on the other
> hand, is sociable, well-mannered and very laid back.  He likes to be held and
> will follow you around, lay in your lap and rarely bites.
>
> Is this a phase that the female will outgrow?
> she stays still for about 10 secs tops.
> Anybody have any ideas on how I can "tame" her?  I hate to use the word tame,
> but unless I can quiet her down, I will have to get rid of her.
>
> John
 
    Seems to me she's just being a kit.  When I got my first
ferret Sebastian, being the only one he had contact with we got
along great.  But still did not want anything to do with me but
play I could not hold him for more than ten secounds or so. When
he got older, around 8-10 mounths he mellowed out a bit and became
more friendly. I could hold him for around 2 min.  Well I got him
a play mate several mounths ago "Mako".  Named him that because
he was the meanest fur balls you've ever seen.  Bought him because
I figured the people who may buy him would get rid of him or
just leave him locked up in a cage.  Well to make a long story
short.  Mako is now the most attentive ferret I've ever seen.
He falls asleep on my lap while I scratch behind his ears,
and is just a doll.
 
    Please try to give your new carpet shark some time to
mellow out.  If you still feel the need to get rid of her make
sure she goes to kind and loving home.  After all ferrets are
people to.
 
    Brad, Sebastian and Mako.
    Mail address [log in to unmask]
    Today is another day to EXCEL!
____________________________________________________________________________
 
Date:    Thu, 11 Feb 1993 09:39:00 -0500
From:    Anonymous Poster <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Ferrets and Cats
 
 
I thought I would add a note of caution on the ferret/cat interaction
stream.  We keep Inigo and Buttercup totally isolated from our cats
because the one time we let our ferrets together with the cats we had
bad results.  Pandora, who was always hyperactive, immediately cornered
our large male cat who like lightning hit her eye with his claw.  Pandora
was not happy and lost her eye  in the affair although she made a full
recovery before her run-in with the flu many months later.  (yes, by the
way, I mean hyperactive by ferret standards above).  I just add this so
people who haven't tried letting the ferrets and cats run together will
do so cautiously.
 
On the same note, I am pretty sure a ferret is no match for a cat.  I
checked this with my zoo buddies who concluded that the weight and
especially the quickness and claws on the cat give it a large advantage
over the ferret in the open.  On of my early reactions to our ferrets
was the amazement at how impressive the cat is as a predator.  Studies,
especially the one in Britain on the kills of housecats, seem to
support this.  (oops, that is "one of my" above, I must embarrassingly
admit to all the coomputer literate that I don't use the editor in mail).
 
And in the last ferret list I did of course mean a ferret legal "locale"
not local.  Given the amount of stress involved with a thesis, it is
amazing any thing gets spelled correctly, which must explain all those
incomprehensible theses out there.
 
Thanks for the info on linatone, it is hard to get ferret specific things
here in Mass so I think I have been overdosing them a bit and will cut
it down.  Next trip to NH I'll have to look for the real thing which
Laura noted.  Also, any follow-ups on the old ferret/steroids would
be helpful as Inigo is showing early signs of his back legs being
unable to handle non-carpeted floors.
 
[Posted in FML issue 0417]