Our experience with ferrets began last November with our two girls,
Drizzle and Kismet. About 3 weeks ago, we became the proud parents of
our first baby boy (ferret, of course). He really poured on the charm
when he first saw us (we later found out it was part of his master plan
to overtake us). His first week was spent mostly in the cage, and had
supervised getting acquainted/play time with the girls. All seemed OK.
Well, now he's allowed to be out most of the time--and this is where our
problem is. (BTW, his name is Sampson.) He is a biter--the girls are
not. Sampson is making a valiant attempt to be alpha-ferret. What
concerns us is that he does not heed their hisses, attacks them when
they're using the litter pan (which has caused *someone* to christen yet
another corner and help keep the litter pan company in business), gets
into some heavy-duty play (?) biting and vigorous shaking of the girls'
heads when he has them by their necks. There are traces of dried blood
in all of the kids' ears, I found reddened teeth marks in the back of
Drizzle's neck, and both girls let out squeals from pain (our
interpretation). This has caused a lot of frustration for us. Drizzle
and Kismet don't seem quite the same, a little withdrawn. We used to put
all three in the cage at night, but Sampson would start in on one or both
of the girls. Our problem with caging only Sampson is that he gets very
upset that he's the only one in the cage and starts loudly crying and
moaning, it's almost bone-chilling at times.
I hope someone has some suggestions. We are literally losing sleep over
this situation. We love our little bed sharks and we're looking forward
to getting more and more involved with the ferret world.
Dennis
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
| [log in to unmask] = Dennis, Leslie, Missy (Sheltie), |
| Pumpkin (red Persian), and the babies: |
| Drizzle, Kismet, and Sampson |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
[Posted in FML issue 0904]
|
