Hello all you wonderful people.  I just love the FML. :-)
 
Honor: don't worry about the blackheads; lots of ferrets get it, and it's
not serious.  My Jasper-boy had them, and they were persistent buggers that
finally went away with the winter coat change.  Any antiseptic cleaner, like
the shampoo you have, should do fine.  One thing I would do differently,
though, is to shampoo every day.  And don't expect results for a couple of
weeks.  Oh, and if you see red flakes and an orangy oil, it goes with the
blackheads.
 
Kevin:  A "flurry" of ferrets sounds great!!!
 
Jody: you said your two females were six months old.  How long have you had
them?  I'm assuming the shelter gave you as much history as they had, and
if there were any unusual factors that might contribute to biting they
would inform you.  Barring that, most ferrets take a while to adjust to a
new home, new humans, new food, new.... you get the picture.  Yours have
been in at least three new environments in their short six months; I think
it will take time and patience, just the same as with any ferret-
especially a young one.
 
I believe how you relate to these girls is a combination of your
expectations (are they realistic?) and your ferrets' temperments, rather
than whether they are from a shelter.  Are these your first ferrets?  Don't
be scared of the biting, it's a ferrets way of communicating *something*.
The trick is to figure out what it is, and then help the ferret change the
way s/he asks.
 
It isn't as theoretical as it sounds. <<g>   For example, when I rescued
Kayla from the SPCA she bit hard; however, I noticed that she only bit me
when she was in my hands and wanted down, or when I reached out my hands to
her when she was playing.  I realized she was saying two things: "put me
down!" and "play with me!".  We got through the first with a combination of
not putting her down til *I* wanted to, and ferretone to keep her occuppied
(ie bribery).  It worked very well.
 
The second was a series of things, a little more complicated.  At first I
would play with her with toys that dangled from rope, away from my hands,
so she knew I was playing with her but it was bite-free.  Then I used
smaller toys.  Then I put slippers over my hands, then I used my knuckles
instead of my fingertips to wrestle.  I'm not at the
fingertips-all-the-time stage, yet, but now I can let her lick ferretone
off my fingers occasionally without worrying my finger is going to be
punctured.  :-)
 
Oh, and if that wasn't enough, to top it all off, any fuzzie around 6-8
months goes through a lovely adolescent phase where they "assert their
independence" (isn't that the polite phrase folks use for unruly teens?).
It will pass.
 
This is a long answer, and I'm worried that it may have rambled too much,
but I hope it helps.  You will *love* your darlings, Jody.
 
Ariel
 
Jasper, Baxter, Kayla
 
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 Ferret Proverb: A raisin in the mouth is worth two in the hand...but try to
 get those too.
 
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[Posted in FML issue 2482]