Hi All,
        I'm the clueless ferret owner and I've got a couple more
questions for you.  First let me tell you about Mischief's first car
trip.  I took her home for the weekend to meet my little sister, my mom,
and my grandmothers.  Eveeryone LOVED her.  In fact, everyone was more
intersted in my ferret then in me.  Mischief knew hor to work the crowd
too.  She was so cute and played really nice with everyone.  She knew
not to play too rough (like she does with me) so that she wouldn't scare
new people not familiar with ferrets.  And to top it all off when I was
showing her to a friend I could figure out why she kept trying to jump
off the couch.  I thought she just wanted to explore the floor.  Well, I
gave up and put her in the cage.  She went and used the litter box and
then came back to the door of the cage.  I took her out and then she
played with me.  Wow, was my friend impressed.  I've only had her three
weeks and aready she knows to use the litter box pretty consistantly.
        OK, now for the questions.  First, Mischief was scared during
the car ride up.  She stayed in the corner of the cage and just sat
there.  I gave her a bath before leaving and by two or three days later
she had quite a smell to her.  I know that they have glands behind the
ears for this (at least I think I read something about that) and I'm
wondering if her quick build up of smell came from her car trip.  I have
to wait a little while before I give her another bath because I don't
want to dry her skin out.  Anyways, I knew she would smell a little when
I got her and for two weeks she seemed to be relativly oder free.  But
over the last couple of days she has come to smell a little more that in
the last two weeks.  I'll love her either way, just curious if this is
going to be her usual pattern from now on.  Is it possible I got a
boched desenting job?  I don't know.
        I asked last time about the biting and disipline thing.  I have
chosen a combination of nose flicking and scruffing.  Mischief (being
the smart weasel that she is) will sto pbiting the moment she sees the
approach for the nose flick so she avoids disipline.  I can't do it if
her teeth are not on me and she isn't biting hard because she won't
figure out why I'm doing it.  Anyways, she has not gotten the message
because she will continue to bite when she gets going again and I never
seem to be able to flick her cause by the time I get there she has
already moved away or loosened up.  What to do?
        Sorry about the length.  Thanks for reading and I hope to hear
from some of you.  The last round of responses have helped tremendously.
Mischief says hi also.
 
                                                Ken Coon
                                                Clueless Ferret Owner
Mischief - So THESE are the people who gave you the nose flicking idea.
Thanks a lot everyone.
[Posted in FML issue 1119]