I had a feeling I knew what was coming in reading about the ferret who was
following the mother around and leaping up.
 
One of our ferrets, who is otherwise well behaved, will immediatley come
running if you have an accordion or recorder you started playing, or a
really squeaky toy.
 
If you don't let him sniff the accordion or recorder, he will get very
frustrated.
 
If you really frustrate him, he will bite you to make you give him the
object.
 
He will do this also with a squeaky toy BUT- if you show it to him- he will
take it gently and hide it in a nest he made of tissues.  Then he will
transport it to a different nest each day to keep it safe of predators.  He
won't chew on it.
 
He seems very agitated by the noise, and weirdly enough, appears to be
acting parental to the source of it once he gets it.  At any rate, whether
to rescue it from you (it is making such distressful sounds!) or out of
frustration, he will bite if you sit there and don't let him see the source.
 
Whichever the reason in the new baby case, it sounded exactly like our
ferret.  The ferret wanted to discover and sniff the source of the sound, we
know that much-- if not what else it wanted-- so after such long
frustration, it bit the thwarting ankles.  We don't necessarily know that it
would do the same to what was being kept from it, but even if it had no such
plans, it wouldn't be good if the ferret tried to drag the baby off to a
protective nest.  And that's the positive possibile view.
 
I hope the couple and their vet figure out this weird ferret high-pitch
agitation frustration phenomenon and what to do about it, since it seems
there is little to calm that type of ferret except not squeaking/playing
reedy things around him.  (Our other ferret does NOT have this
characteristic.)
[Posted in FML issue 2234]