The way I got my little one used to the water was to introduce it to him as
something to play in..a fun thing, not just for bathing..If you MUST bath
your ferret, and the only reasons I could think of would be medical or flea
related problems, because if your are trying to get rid of their wonderful
ferret smell, descented or not, the smell will come back two fold.
 
The first time I introduced Chandler to the bath tub, this water
introduction does not include his snorkling in the cats water bowl, I filled
the tub so it only went up half way, about 1 inch of water, leaving the back
half of the tub as a place to go if he freaked out..which he didn't...I gave
him a treat and lots of praise, all of which he could have cared less, he
was to busy trying to figure out what was down the drain, totally immersing
his head in the water to check it out.  Of course the younger they are, the
easier it is to get them use to this, part of the reason I did this was
because he crawled through my fireplace (which is now cleaned out) and dug
to China in one of my potted trees,(may it rest in peace) and the PLAIN
water cleaned him off just fine.
 
Last night, for the first time I completely filled the tub, and held him in
my hands and let him take the first step (leap) into the tub, but i still
supported him until he realized he could not touch the bottom and I let him
ferret paddle around for about 5 seconds and then took him out and dried
him as best I could, and then let him do the rest himself, which in it self
is a hoot, all over the rug he scooted and rubbed and rolled.
 
So the bottom line is, unless you HAVE to, DONT, or at least limit it to
once a month, and start off slowly, making it fun, and dont always put him
in the water to bath him..let him play sometimes.
 
Good luck,
June
[Posted in FML issue 2519]