Notes on this:
Yes, ferrets always have a reason to bite, but I remember Triton, my
freind's resedent bitey ferret.  He usually would bite for two reasons:
if he got over excited playing, and if he was in a bad mood.  YES ferrets
DO get in grumpy moods.
 
If he bit cause he was overexcited, he'd quickly freeze and look 'ack!',
knowing he did the 'bad thing' but not sure what to do.  Of course, he'd
get soft words, and a hug, and he'd calm down.
 
Now, occasionally, he'd just get ornery.  Really ornery.  At one point, he
walked over to Kyle, his owner,after being let out of the ferret room, and
having looked around for a few minutes, and just calmly LATCHED onto his
hand.  To the bone.  Now, he DID get smacked, and yelled at, because we
felt it was clear he KNEW he was doing something bad, and doing it anyways.
Some people might not agree with this, but I think there are occasions when
ferrets bite because they're mad or grumpy, and they should know better.
 
I should note Triton is not a rescused ferret, and is very well treated,
but became like this after lossing his freind from childhood (another
ferret) at 12 weeks.  This specific incident noted was after he had two
other ferret freinds, and had been fine for some time.  Currently, he only
bites if he gets too excited, and is a much better behaved ferret.  I think
letting him know that biting was wrong, and he couldn't do it just because
he was in a bad mood helped him stop.
 
Mel!
[Posted in FML issue 2466]