Hi folks, Melissa and Potpie here to comment on this-and-that.
 
Biting/Nipping: The best advice I've gotten for curing biting involves the
combination of thumping 'em on the nose and giving them kisses. It cured
Potpie, who was getting gradually worse and worse with nipping until, in
desperation, I called the place I bought her from and asked what the heck
was going on. "If you thump her on the nose every time she bites, she's
going to think you hate her, and you're being antagonistic. When she's got
her teeth on you, thump her. When she lets go, pick her up and give her
attention--a kiss, a scritch, some cooing, anything, to let her know you
still love her. As it is, with all the whapping right now, you're making
it worse." Lo and behold, Potpie's biting stopped. Go figure--the psychology
of that technique seems pretty darned obvious to me.
 
Introducing her to people in a FFZ: I took her to the pet (typoed that 'pest'
at first, hee) store when I went out to buy some food for her, and she sat
in my arms like quite the lady, occasionally diving into my coat and sticking
her nose out of my sleeve--much to the delight of the kids who were waiting
at the counter. On a whim, I approached the mother and asked her if it
was okay for the kids to pet her. Nervously, she agreed, and I took the time
while Potpie was busy adoring the scritches from teeny hands to tell the
mom that ferrets are wonderful, if time-consuming, pets. Puppy-like, domestic
animals. The generic speech I end up giving everyone who asks. :)
 
The story of my first ferret panic 'emergency' which wasn't really: One
night, after having let the furry out before bedtime, I came back upstairs
into her domain and as I was brushing my teeth I looked down at Potpie and
noticed that all of the fur between her pink nose and beady little eyes
was brilliant cobalt blue. *panic* What did she eat? I thought. I looked
_everywhere_. Under the bed, in the vanity, in the closets, under the
couch, in her cage, under her cage, in the corners--everywhere. Finally, out
of the corner of my eye as I was standing in one of the rooms, despairing,
I saw an innocuous grocery bag that had the top folded down. One of those
things that bypassed ferret-proofing, but on a hunch I opened it up...
...and found that she'd torn open a bag of aquarium gravel and had gone
nosing through it, dumping it all over the inside of the bag. I could've
laughed for hours. :)
 
As I realize more and more that I'm gone a good deal of the time, --too much
of the time--, I keep getting the feeling that Potpie needs a companion.
Preferably male; she's not a human-oriented ferret, and I don't want to lose
the ferrets to each other. :) Before I do something silly like buy a kit,
does anyone know of a male ferret that needs a home?
 
Apologies for the long message!
 
Potpie, who has discovered that scattering food out of her cage is FUN,
and
Melissa, who really needs to put a big tray under the damned cage. :)
 
[Posted in FML issue 0802]