Hi!
i was reading about Jester, and i thought of something to try, i am no
expert i only have two ferrets Liza and Truls wich i bought at the same
petstore and only one month apart, but maybee if you put Jester and only one
ferret ( the one most likely to treat Jester kindly) in a small room, and
you sitting on the floor with Jester so he can gaine confidence, repeat
every day,increasing the time always with the same ferret untill they play
and maybee sleep together, now that he has one buddy it will be easyer to
face playing with two !  kind of integrate the rest of the ferrets one at
the time with Jester rather than integrating Jester with your other group,,
i can imagine that this will take some time, Jester having been the only
ferret he probably does'nt know that he is a ferret !!  i would suggest
trying out a room that is neutral to all ferrets if there is such a room,
maybee i am just blabbing and maybee it is what you are already trying to
do, i hope it works out, i may be facing the same problem when ferret math
hits me, i want to adopt a ferret that needs a good home, ( the more the
merryer...??!!) however i am building my case, since i am the only ferret
obsessed in our household, and my family just tolerate whenever i start the
procedures to let them out to play every day, they get about five hours a
day when everyone is at home but whenever i can they are out all day, what
makes me think they are not suffering in any way (all the postings re free
rooming versus cage) is that wether they are out all day or not, they
usually find a place to sleep within three hours of being let out, wether i
am in the room with them or not.  i love to play with them , and the most
precious moments are when i am holding and loving my babies and they go to
sleep in my arms :) Their personalities are so different!!  Liza was a heavy
biter, she demonstrated it right away at the pet store where we bought her,
but we where told that they are all the same!!  that socializing and
training, would do it, later i realized that they were reffering to nipping,
and that is not what Liza did!!  she drew blood almost every time, and i
read somewhere that signs of aggression were round big eyes and licking
their lips in a nervous way, i believe it to be true and Liza used to do
that a lot.... no amount of "nip training" did us any good, only patience,
love, and soft talk seemed to have any effect.  now she only nips in play,
and i get so emotionall when we are playing and i can tell she really tryes
to be gentle with this poor human..!  and when she puts her little paws on
my leg for attention and does'ent get it right away she bites the back of
my leg just a little...Truls on the other hand has never closed his mouth
around the skin of a human (unless very very gently in play) he is so
trusting that nothing bad could ever happen to him, that a human could ever
hurt him has never crossed his mind, he is my ferret ambassador , i let
children hold him and people who always have thought of ferrets as vicious
and wild realize that it is not necessarily true.  althoug i never let
anyone hold Liza...(except her Vet who now knows to wear big
gloves....hehehe...) she has a very special place in my heart, althoug i
love them both sooooooo muuuuuuuch!!!  their personalities remind me very
much of the charakters in Pooh Bear, Truls is Poo Bear and Liza is Rabbit..
 
i realize i am babbling a lot, i am still looking for ferret loving people
in Las Vegas to share my passion with, i am sure there is someone out there
!!  please send me an e-mail!!
 
My Love to all Fuzzies and their Humans
Josephine  Trulsie Poo and Liza Rabbit=20
[Posted in FML issue 2409]