Hello fml'ers!
 
HELP PLEASE...I NEED REASSURANCE.  We did something yesterday that I
question now...we purchased a 71/2 week little boy.  Most precious thing
you've ever seen!  Still too young - it breaks my heart.  Still trying
to suckle.  Cries if he's put down or alone.  No flames please.  We've
had calls into all the shelters around here and have been on a waiting
list for a male silvermitt, but nothing's come thru.  The nearest
breeder is a long drive away.  So it was a pet store ferret.  The store
is nice.  The sales girl who looked after the ferrets owns several
herself.  So we just love him to death, and so does 4 of the 5 girls.
Salt has always given us trouble with new ones.  But it seems that with
each addition it gets worse.
 
I'm sure that given time and a lot of love and bandaids for the newby,
everyone will be fine, but it puts a knot in my stomach to think of
what's ahead for the next few weeks.
 
Here's a little breakdown:
 
Salt & Pepper were our two originals.  Pepper was first and one week
later we went back and got Salt, they were from the same shipment.  They
bonded in a blink of an eye.  Then we brought home Snowball, and Pepper
followed her around EVERYWHERE, practically hiding her underneath
herself.  Just curious I think.  Salt wanted NOTHING to do with her.
She sniffed her and walked away to sulk.  She was shown extra love and
attention and all was fine within an hour or so.  3 peas in a pod.
 
Then we brought Ayla home a little while later (1 to be exact!).  Pepper
did the same thing, and Snowball was still so little she just loved her!
 Salt came over and sniffed her then grabbed her in the death hold.  A
lot of vigorous shaking and neck holds, and a LOT of screaming from the
baby, as well as poop flying everywhere.  This lasted a couple of hours
tops and everything was fine.  4 peas in a pod.  Then Shadow came to
live with us.  She was 6 or 7 months.  The other 4 checked her out and
"approved", but Salt immediately slinked up on her and began attacking
her.  Well Shadow was never around other ferrets, so she was extremely
skittish even with the other 4.  They tried to play and she had do idea
what to do.  She thought they were attacking her.  Then Salt added to
that by flopping her around by the neck relentlessly.  This lasted
almoest a full WEEK!  I don't know if it was because she was older and
wasn't sure how to give in to the dominance thing.  Kits pretty well
give in immediately, having no other choice.  But she just screamed
every time Salt would sneak up on her.  After the first week, Shadow
caught on to what she was supposed to do and the next thing we knew,
they were sleeping together.
 
Well we brought him home yesterday, and I put the others in their cage
and let him check out his new room.  Salt was eying him up through the
cage.  I could just read her expression..."let me at him".  After he
checked out the room, I let out Pepper.  She just hoovered over him for
a while.  He tried playing with her, but he's so tiny, I'm not sure that
she knew what he was doing.  She just kept steping back away from him,
but still trying to sniff him and check him out.  To make a long story
short, all the others checked him out and liked him immediatly.  Then
Salt was allowed to sniff him (after a lengthy time sniffing out his
stuff to catch a scent).  She took one whif of his back (I held him
backwards to her) she quickly bit at him.  Not even the neck, but right
on his back.  Bit and hissed.  He cried and looked up at me with this
pitiful expression.  "What I do??"  So I continued to hold him and that
was it as far as interaction between the two of them.  She's been
spooked ever since.  We kept her in the cage while he interacted with
the others.  Then he fell asleep, so we put him in the cage, and let
Salt out.  She proceeded to attact each and every other ferret with his
scent.  Big bottle tail, a lot of hissing for no reason, and she hid
under the couch all night.  When bed time came, we kept Salt & Pepper
out and locked everyone else in the cage.  Shut the door, and let them
have free run of their room.  Usually, all 5 of them had free run of the
room.  The cage was never closed.  Well they all cuddled in the hammock
and Salt & Pepper slept in their drawer all night.  This orning, same
deal.  I left him in the cage and Slat proceeded to attack EVERYONE.
She's really on edge.  I'm afraid to let them at it yet because he's so
SMALL yet, and I have a feeling this is going to be a little more
scarier than when Ayla was 8 weeks old.  Remember, Ayla's beatings only
lasted an hour or so.  She's out for blood and the little thing is too
small to defend himself.
 
I guess I'm going to have to keep them seperated for a while - which is
going to be pretty difficult.
 
I hope this wasn't a mistake.  We've already fallen in love with him.  I
can't imagine having to give him up.  I know sometimes things won't work
out and a particular ferret will never accept a new one.  But since Salt
has always acted this way when introduced to a new one, and given time
she's accepted them, I've got this flicker of hope that this will work
out sooner or later.  But it just seems with each new ferret, she gets
worse.  It breaks my heart to have to put the new one through such abuse
that he's going to have to take.
 
Any encouraging words?  I know every situation is different, and I'm not
looking for any new ways to go about this, just a couple of encouraging
words or stories.  Thanks everyone!
 
Mish
[Posted in FML issue 1302]