Brian Walker asked about introducing a new ferret.
 
When we got Rascal, she was no bigger than the palm of my hand.  Our other
two ferrets, Slinky (3 yrs) and Bandit (6 months) were easily twice her size
(or more).  We kept Rascal in a separate cage and only let her "mingle" with
the other two ferrets for short, supervised periods.  Bandit (male) would
wrestle with Rascal pretty physically, so we were more careful when he would
come over to see Rascal during these play times.  This went on for maybe four
weeks.  During this time, Rascal went from canned kitten food to normal
ferret food and she learned to use the litter box for its designated purpose
(i.e., NOT a sand box!!!!).
 
When the three of them looked like they were starting to get along during
their supervised play times, we decided to go one step further.  One
afternoon we let them play together and then put all three into the main
cage.  We watched them for maybe a couple of hours before we took Rascal out
for the night (the session went well but we were not ready to permanently
move her in with the other two).  We did this again a couple of times before
making the big move!
 
Now all three are happy as larks!!!!  Our oldest ferret (Slinky, 3 yrs) took
a while to warm up to Rascal.  Rascal is a ball of energy ...  which suits
Bandit just fine (they take turns ambushing each other and then gyrate
wildly doing their war dances!!!!).  Slinky is sedate.  Rascal has had a
positive influence on Slinky ...  Slinky is much more active now than before
we got Rascal.  But Slinky still has her limits and let's Rascal know when
those limits are exceeded (she starts making this strange sort of hissing
sound at first.  Then she goes into her ultra-play mode where she jumps on
Rascal's back and shakes her head back and forth while biting (not hard) her
back.  She even resorts to head butting ...  Slinky turns perpendicular to
Rascal then quickly runs into Rascal's side with her head lowered (kind of
like a submarine tackle in football).  This method is extremely good at
dislodging Rascal from the bed ...  much to Rascal's chagrin!!!!  But that
always puts Slinky as "Queen of the Hill"!  Then she can "patrol" the edges
of the bed and nip at the other two as they try to gain the much desired bed
top perch!!!!  Hysterical!
 
Well, enough of my ramblings!  Good luck with introducing the new ferret to
Snowflake, Brian!  BTW, I love the name Snowflake!!!  What type of ferret is
she/he???  Albino, Silver-Mit, Silver?
 
Marc Wilson
[Posted in FML issue 1409]