Hello to everyone and happy holidays!
 
I've been reading over the FML for a short while, and as with many other
people I find it very informative and enjoyable.  I'm actually writing in to
share my experience on introducing a second ferret to the household as there
was a person who was inquiring about this.
 
It all started when I thought that my ferret, Mickey, needed a friend/a
playmate.  He was already 1 1/2 years old and very used to our company,but
my mother and I felt that perhaps he may be lonely since he was at home
alone for a large part of the day.  Well, we finally did decide to get
another ferret.  We got her from another person through the newspaper.  When
we went over to see her we found that she was about Mickey's age, and she
was also lively and gentle.  We thought that she would be compatible with
Mickey.  So, we brought Sassy home.
 
The first day we basically kept Sassy in the cage and just let them observe
each other.  We did let her out to explore her new home and all those new
scents (especially Mickey's), but we kept them separate.  Then eventually we
started introducing Mickey and Sassy to each other for short periods of time
as we stood guard.  And each time they got into these horribly vicious
fights were they would be biting each other.  And since Sassy wasn't
descented she kept spraying everywhere.  After their fights the room they
were in would be concentrated with stench from her spraying; and both Mickey
and Sassy would have a few small raw/bald patches from where they tore each
other's hair out.  We were blown away at how fiercly they fighted with each
other.  We were dissapointed as well because we now thought that this was
one of the worst mistakes we had made in taking care of our ferrets.  The
reason for this is because after their fights they both seemed quite
traumatized and frightened.  They would both be shaking and Mickey even
started to distrust us (since it was us who brought all of this upon him).
At this point we didn't know what to do.  We were trying to find information
from all sorts of ferret books, but we came up pretty much empty handed.
Although, one piece of information that could be useful is that you should
introduce the ferrets on some neutral ground.  However, in our case,
Mickey's territory was our whole apartmen; so, everywhere we introduced
Sassy was an invasion on his turf.
 
It got to be so that we thought that they would never be friends.  We then
pretty much had a routine of letting them out of their cages at separate
times.  Although once in a while we would try having them out at the same
time.  And as usual, when they encountered one another they began to fight.
 
Weeks passed and then months.  I think it took about three months until we
could let them out at the same time.  They pretty much avoided each other,
and here and there they would have a scrimage.  Yet, as time passed when
they did fight it started to decrease in severity and Sassy sprayed less
often.  I suppose that at this point they realized that they were stuck with
each other and now they were starting to establish the rules with each other.
 
Now it is about seven (or so) months later and as time had passed they had
gradually gotten used to each other.  We can even say they are friends.
They sleep in the same cage, Sassy rarely spays, and they even PLAY with
each other.  Looking back at it, Mickey was extremely jelous of Sassy
because he was not the only one getting the attention.  We never thought
that it would turn out this well, especially from the way they started off.
I'm just so happy that we had the patience to stick with it.
 
Lenka
[Posted in FML issue 1425]