My youngest boy, Pogo, has a really bad habit.  I've never come across this
before and neither has anyone else I've asked.
 
He takes his crunchies out of his dish and carries them to the nearest
litterbox to eat.  Aside from the obvious "That's gross" there is
definitely a health concern.  How can I dissuade him from this so he'll
understand it's the crunching IN the litterbox that's bad and not the
litterbox or the crunching.  I haven't tried anything yet.  I'm afraid
he'll mis-associate an attempt at correction.  The poor guy goes nuts when
I scoop the litter boxes.  He thinks I'm stealing his food!
 
I posted quite some time ago about BooBoo that I'd adopted (unknown
background) who was very aggressive toward my other ferrets and was marking
despite being neutered.  It turned out that he was Adrenal and had surgery
about two months ago.  I'd originally assumed his aggressive behavior may
have been due to being an only ferret.  Aside from the symptoms mentioned
above, the only additions were itchy, dry looking skin and poor coat
quality.  There was no question during surgery that the gland was bad.
 
I'm very happy to report that he's now "in the group".  It's funny how his
integration came about.  I'm fostering (will be adopting) a biter who was
turned over to our shelter, named Ginger Snap (some will remember my post).
Well, Ginger is very "squeaky aggressive" and Booboo will scream when he
attacks someone else, so picture this; Ginger is minding her own business
and BooBoo attacks her and screams.  Ginger reacts to the screaming by
attacking the squeaky (BooBoo).  I've never seen a ferret look more
confused!  In the end, despite all my attempts and assumed "experience",
it took a little, then five month old, one pound (soaking wet), troubled
ferret to bring the big, bad BooBoo to his furry knees.
 
SP
[Posted in FML issue 2545]