I've been thinking a lot lately about the odd dominance games ferrets play.
We currently have 10 (6 ours, 3 rescues, 1 boarder) and we've finally
gotten around to setting up a single room for them so that they don't have
to be caged when we're gone or asleep.  They're very appreciative!  Now
that they have more space, though, and the choice of sleeping place--well,
it's odd.
 
Molly is the six-year-old male who's not in the best of health.  He's caged
alone because he likes it that way.  He's always been aggressive toward
other ferrets--he was an only ferret for more than three years.  But he's
not dominant--he's more of a fear-biter than anything else.  He just has to
attack first.  All the others are younger and faster, so they basically get
out of the way and don't get too upset if he does go for them.  Except
Gibber, who used to be his cage-mate; she seems afraid of him.  But she's
dominant to just about everyone else--the three-year-old grand dame of the
bunch.  In her own quiet way, she refuses to let anyone pick on her.  She
doesn't tackle them or drag them around (at one and a quarter pounds, I
don't know if she could), but they quite literally defer to her.  She gets
first choice of sleeping place, food, all that.  She treats everyone with
benevolence EXCEPT Zelda, our boarder, a two-year-old sable who was
recently very ill.  (Doing better, by the way, just underweight now.) Gibs
hates Zelda with a passion.  Zelda is extremely fear-aggressive, but
getting better now that she's not sick; she's starting to socialize with
the calmer ferrets and not immediately begin screaming.  Saturday, one of
our rescues, is a two-year-old extremely dominant female--she beats up
anyone who dares to come near her, except Gibber.  As soon as they give in
and admit she's better than they are, she stops.  Tess and Winter are our
nutty year-old sisters; they chase the others around, wrestle, and play
pretty rough--but don't usually seem to take anything personally.  Simon is
a six-month-old male who lets Saturday drag him around by the ears and
doesn't protest at all.  Molly doesn't bother him and Gibber likes to sleep
with him; Zelda doesn't seem afraid of him.  Amadeo, Belle, and Pepe are
all youngsters, and, although they're scrappers, they don't seem at all
concerned with dominance battles.
 
I know this is long.  Sorry.  Anyway, the last few nights they've all
gotten to choose from about 20 possible sleeping places.  Due to
aggression, Molly and Zelda are caged.  The other eight work things out
fairly peaceably.  This morning, they were all sleeping in a pile--and
yesterday, seven of them had managed to pile into a tiny new hammock.
 
Apparently, dominance is a fluid thing--it seems to have as much to do with
specific personalities as hierarchy.  Some ferrets are dominant over some
but submissive to some that are submissive to them... it's endlessly
fascinating to watch.  Older males and females seem to fight it out more,
while youngsters get along with just about anyone.  Another good argument
for intense socialization at a young age!
 
As an end note: I have three ferrets available for adoption in Southern
Maine.  They're Saturday, a silver blaze mitt female about two years old,
Belle, an adorable dark girl with a very thin blaze and two smudges for a
mask, and Pepe, a sable male.  Belle and Pepe are about five months and
must be adopted together.  They're excellent with other ferrets and animals
in general.  We love them so much we half want to keep them. :-)  Saturday
was given up as a biter, but hasn't shown evidence of it--but the previous
owner had small children.  She's not great with other ferrets, but is
integrating well.  She's generally a sweetheart with people.  Contact me if
you're interested, and check out the web page!
 
Jen and the Crazy Business plus four
http://home.maine.rr.com/tesseract
[Posted in FML issue 2713]