>To: Kimberly Platz and Toby <[log in to unmask]>
>You think Toby is a Moose at 2.3 pounds?  Pogo weighs 3.8 pounds!  Now
>that's a MOOSE!
 
Hah!!  You think Pogo is a moose at 3.8lbs??  Milo's summer weight is
6.2lbs, and his winter weight is around 7.5 - 7.9lbs.  Yes, he's neutered,
he's just really really fat.  We have a few hobs who weigh in around 4 and
5lbs, and they're a scant 6 & 7 months old ...
 
>From:    "Bryan H. Hall" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Fredonia Ferret Faiure... and my last post.
>This will most likely be my last post to the FML.  I no longer feel fit to
>keep such august company, as I am now no better than Mr. Friend, whom the
>Fredonia fuzzies survived.
 
Bryan, you shouldn't be so hard on yourself.  Not every person can be the
perfect parent to every ferret.  There are personality conflicts between
ferrets and people - you just need the right person to deal with the right
ferret.  We had a rescue in here that came in at 4.5 weeks old.  I also have
her sister.  Her sister has turned into a dream at 13 weeks, but the other
turned into a monster.  She bit everything, tried to locate the bones in
your body with her pointy teeth and then remove them through the skin.  She
was beyond simple "kit-nippy".  I couldn't bear to be bitten anymore, and I
fostered her out with the President of the Ferret Association.  Under her
handling, Mocha gets better and better all the time, and has almost entirely
stopped biting now - it's been 2 weeks.
 
I just wasn't the person to break her of that habit, but I know it wasn't me
(I've raised lots of wonderfully good natured kits) and it wasn't her (she's
gone from being called "The Sewing Machine" to "The Angel") it was _us_.  We
were a bad combination.
 
So try not to feel you've done the ferret a disservice by reacting to the
pain he caused you.  My very first ferret, BooBoo, had a real passion for
nipping ankles when he was young.  I went out of town for a while, left him
with a friend, who got the BooBoo Chomp one evening and, with a reflex kick,
booted my baby across the room.  BooBoo is 7 years old now, healthy as a
horse and the sweetest ferret in existence.  In fact, he's never bitten an
ankle since that defining moment.  Now, it wasn't the method *I* would have
chosen to go about training him out of it, but it certainly hasn't harmed
his love of people (it's just a fleshless love now) or his sweet
personality.
 
Rehabilitating ferrets who were mistreated and never handled is a task that
few people are equal to anyway, and you can hardly blame yourself for not
having the experience or supreme patience it can require.  And again, there
is that personality conflict matter.  We get ferrets in here all the time
that were brought in because they were "nasty biters" and most of them
wouldn't even think of chomping me.  On the other hand, we've had problems
with a few apparantly sweet ferrets who've come in and decided I was on
their hate-list, but with other people they do just fine.
 
Consider, too, that these ferrets were mishandled and mistreated by men.
Could be some of these ferrets need a woman to rehabilitate them.  But
whatever the reason, don't beat yourself up over it any longer ... you have
other wondeful ferrets who love and trust you, don't you??  Look to them as
an example of your patience, kindness and interaction with fuzzies.  One
failed attempt does not a bad ferret owner make.
 
Sheena - [log in to unmask]                           |To Err is Ferret  |
Director - Wherret Ferrets Halfway House & Ferretry  |To Forgive...well |
VP - Ferret Association of Greater Vancouver         |...That's Our Job!|
         We're on the Web! http://ww2.portal.ca/~cmc~/ferrets/fagv/
[Posted in FML issue 1734]