Although I also have my doubts on the ability of ferrets to go feral, some
of them certainly retain hunting skills. One of our ferrets (Coffee)
recently learned how to open the ferret cage from the inside, and will do
it while we are at work. Both Coffee and Daphne like to climb on the
gerbil cages and will occasionally pull a lid off of one. After these
two things happened yesterday, Taz got into the opened gerbil cage and
killed and dragged every member of the gerbil family into a hidey hole for
eating later. We know it was Taz because it took us a while to find the
three bodies that were in a kitchen drawer, and Coffee was in there but
ignored the bodies while Taz attempted to climb in and have breakfast.
Also, they weren't all killed inside the cage. Some of the gerbils
escaped and had to be hunted down, because we found blood and guts on
various parts of the walls.
As for introducing new ferrets, you really do need to let them fight it
out somewhat. Supervise at first, and if one of the ferrets attempts to
get an eye or jugular, then it's serious and you need to take it pretty
slowly. However, if it's just neck biting or ear biting, you need to let
them work it out for themselves. They are establishing dominance
patterns, and if you constantly break it up 1. it will go on longer, and
2. the original ferret will begin to resent the newer, protected ferret
and it will get worse. You kind of need to grit your teeth and listen to
the smaller one cry. If the screaming gets really horrible and frantic,
or goes on longer than a couple minutes, then break it up. One good
indicator is the littler one will often jump back into the fight and keep
asking for it even after you've broken it up or the bigger has let go of
the scruff. I know it's scary looking, but it's normal ferret behavior.
Michelle
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[log in to unmask]
Meet my pets. The ferrets (Taz, Coffee, and Daphne), the gerbils (lots),
the zebra mouse (Racer), the rats (Timmy, Sue, and Princess), the bird
(Sky), and the fish (various).
[Posted in FML issue 1187]
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