On Friday the 8th Bob <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
 
>One other thing, for the first day or
>so, NONE of the beasties squabbled--they were too interested in sniffing
>each other's butts. Imagine a ferret daisy-chain of 11 ferts, each nose
>to butt, walking in unison. I have noticed this same sort of 'delayed
>response' in other mammals and mustelids. Any one else notice?
 
Uh-huh. Whenever my guys meet new ferrets it goes sort of like this: (i)
Introductions: sniff, sniff, who are you? Do you belong here? Are you foe
or family? (ii) Either the new ferrets sniff back and allow themselves to
be sniffed, or they rebel, which means I have to separate them and try
uniting them at a later date. (iii) If they don't rebel, everyone sniffs
the other. Either: my guys and the new ferrets love each other and accept
each other off the bat,  or they start to fight, or they just sniff each
other and go to their separate corners 'till later... (iv) If they love
each other, they commence "initiating and adopting/claiming" each other as
their own by rubbing themselves against each other, particularly where the
musky parts of their bodies are (especially by the neck). This creates a
bonded scent and everybody's one big happy family.
 
Anyhow, at point (iii) when they fight, it's one of two scenerios. Either
(a) they  are rejecting each other all together, or they are (b)
establishing from the start who is the boss, and what order the status quo
is to go. It totally depends on the personalities of the ferrets which
route they decide to go.
At point (iii) when they go into their separate corners, they only
post-pone one of two actions: the rub of union or the fight of position.
Fight of rejection is rare at this point, since they usually do this right
away at introduction.
 
When it's a successful introduction (they don't reject each other off the
bat and they do the rub) the quabbles over who's the boss begin. But, the
way they set it up (position) changes over the years and depends on several
variables. One of the most important variables is place--physical location
that is. Whose arriving? and who owns this place already? Are they all
arriving at once? And so on... I know my own guys in their own home warmly
accepted a set of younger ferrets I ferret-sat during the spring, but as
soon as my guys went to visit them during the summer, wham! Personality
clash. Reunion on the other ferret's "turf" proved to be more difficult and
almost lead to an outright rejection!
 
Anyhow, there's my voice on the rub. (Why am I feeling so Shakespearean all
of a sudden?   (:  )
Sincerely,
Gloria & her furries: (Clark) Sable, Whitey (Houston), and foster sweeties
Flower, and her furry brother Kanga(roo).
 
http://www.ccn.cs.dal.ca/~aa558/welcome.html
[Posted in FML issue 1408]