Hi Rachelle (and list buddies)
 
My Pepper is a "nose only" nipper.  He's not subtle, and it's quite funny
even though sometimes it really hurts.
 
I'll hold him up in front of my face and tell him what a wonderful fat, lazy
boy he is, and he'll slo-o-wly stretch his neck out, open his mouth, and
grab my nose.  Ouch!  But it's funny because he does it so dang DELIBERATELY.
Almost like he thinks about it for a little while before he does it.  He
never bites any other time, except when roughhousing.  Too funny.
 
Nail-clipping: I discovered a new method last night--Pepper got his nail
caught on something and had a long nasy thread attached to it, so I had to
do an emergency clip.  I couldn't find the linatone, so I just sat down with
the clippers, scruffed him with my TEETH, an clipped away.  My boyfriend was
laughing so hard at me, but it worked so well that I clipped the nails of 3
other ferrets the same way, including BB, who still is a hyper, suspicious
face-biter.  It was actually easier than linatone-on-belly, because they
always seem to run out of belly-tone and start wriggling like crazy.
Besides that, even while they lick their tummies, they fight me terribly--
pulling their feet away, etc.  Not much of that last night when I scruffed
with my teeth.  Perhaps they were a little shell-shocked by the method??
 
One more ? for the list: Are there other "invisible" signs of Adrenal
Disease with males aside from mating behavior?
 
Pepper has just been such a terrible bully to our one tiny female--he
scruffs her, drags her off, and makes her squeal by biting her and, well,
you know, "humping" (sorry, that's crude, but it's what he does.) He doesn't
do it to any of the other males, though, just the female, and he's fixed,
and she's fixed, so he's really not accomplishing anything.  But it's been
CONSTANT.  I have to put her over the gate out of his reach because he WILL
NOT leave her alone.  He hasn't lost any hair at all, his energy levels are
completely normal, he's eating, but he might be drinking more water than
usual.  (I find the water bottle (20 oz or so) almost empty every day--don't
get me wrong, I fill it with fresh water every day, whether it's nearly
empty or not--but it's a HUGE water bottle, and it never *used* to be almost
empty, ever.  He doesn't seem to be having any difficulties urinating, and
he was pronounced "sound" at the vet in August, but we didn't do any blood
tests or anything.  He's probably 1.5 to 2 years old.
 
I guess my question is what besides hair loss should I watch for?  He's the
only ferret of 4 males that's so completely fixated on *owning* the female.
The other's like her, but I swear, he's trying to eat her right up.  Poor
girl.
 
Thanks,
 
--Sheri
 
"Until our paths find us together
   may you forever go
     in peace."   --Mike Rayburn (comic entertainer and acoustic rock artist)
[Posted in FML issue 2138]