Hello all.
 
We have had 16 ferrets in total and their noises, or lack of noises varied
with their personalities.  For instance.  Sadie, as soon as you take her out
of her cage she starts dooking.  She even dooks when you pick her up (I love
to hear her dooking in my arms).  Mookie and Nikki are also "heavy dookers"
but they restrict it to playtime.  Nikki is a complainer and you readily
hear her hissing when she doesn't get her way.  Jasper is deaf and he just
never learned to dook because he never heard it.  He does however whimper
and complain if he is attacked and he does make noises when he yawns as he
wakes up.  BJ is a very unhappy and fearful ferret in general but
occasionally she looses herself and you can hear the odd dook out of her.
More often than not, however, you hear her hissing with things get a little
rough and she gets afraid.  A few of them dooked a lot when they were young
but even though they certainly don't look unhappy, they just don't dook
quite as much.  Perhaps that is because they are less active since they are
senior citizens.  As you can see, a variety of personalities that make
different vocal sounds at different times, for different reasons.
 
Having had 16 ferrets (still have 9) I have had some experience in this
area.  Scooter came to us when he was 3 years old.  He was an only ferret
since they got him.  When we first introduced him to the rest of the gang
it was just hilarious.  He pulled back and sat on his back with a look that
said  "aaaaaa...What's the sam hill is that?" He just sat and stared.  When
they got too close he would push himself against them and eventually attack
(this part is hard to explain because his behavior was so weird).  We took
many steps to integrate him but finally we just accepted the fact that he
was a loner.  We even tried to team him up with 2 very calms sweet girls
and he did nothing but intimidate them and mistreat them.  It is like "I am
used to being the boss and you are not horning in on my territory."  There
also seemed to be an element of fear and mistrust for other ferrets and one
way to combat that is to attack them before they can attack me. As for the
rest of them, again it depended on their personalities.  Nikki is a nervous
Nelly (has gotten a lot better in her old age) and she took the same
approach as Scooter.  I am afraid of them so I will attack them before they
attack me.  It took her and Benji a long time to get used to each other.
 (I won't discuss methods here since that is not the question) and some of
the others didn't take nearly as long when they were introduced to each
other.  Buddy was an odd example.  We left him whole until he was 4 yr. old
and he only ever had one thing on his mind and that was girls - let me at
them, both when he was in season and when he wasn't.  Good for breeding but
didn't do much for his social life.  Needless to say, he rarely played,
ever and he never had a partner until he was fixed.  Now he has Josie and
they are a great pair.  Buddy has learned to play and they have a ball.
 
Reasons why I sometimes don't answer queries:  I am frequently behind with
my reading of the FML and sometimes I would like to answer but I think that
this topic is already dealt with because of the time span.  Sometimes too,
I am so busy I can hardly keep up with the FML let alone reply to anyone.
 My knowledge is quite limited too and I am afraid that I would be giving
out wrong information.  I guess this has to do with my insecurity because I
have had ferrets for 7 1/2 years and 16 of them at that so I must know
something.  I have to admit that I have asked many questions and at times,
I get no response and I feel quite put out because after all, look how many
responses so in so got.  However, on a few occasions I have had wonderful
responses, including phone calls from Pennsylvania from Diane Bodofsky who
would call me prime time because that was how she could get me.  Now that
is dedication and a love for ferrets.  I felt honoured that she called.
 What I am saying here is somewhat of an apology.  The responses people
give to this problem has helped me to understand more fully why sometimes I
get a response and sometimes I don't.  I apologize for jumping to
conclusions and having a negative attitude at times.  This has been a good
exercise for me as well and I am glad it came up.
 
Thank you all.  Your are truly wonderful people.
[Posted in FML issue 2189]