Lissette, you have a very traumatized and unsocialized baby. Hopefully
she is not also aggressive in her temperment (breeding). Deafness is
the least of your problems. You need expert advice from ferret people
who have dealt with vicious biters. Troy Lynn, Alicia, perhaps Randy,
and who knows all else. I hope they reply. I also hope that many
people realize that with an animal like this, its not just all about
socialization. This sort of agression is a serious problem and the
old "have patience, show love, show nice hands" does not always work.
I've come across two incorrible biters. One was a rare find. A Path
Valley kid only 7 weeks old, I was the first home and he was just
as you described. He was no diff than a wild animal. It was almost
neurological too. The pet store could not sell him as was, and came to
me for help. We gave it a year. There was only minimal change. It's
important to note that I never used gloves. And now I think that was a
mistake. I had a baby on the way, so I could not keep him and gave him
back to the pet store owners. I have no clue what happened to him next.
The nice pet store owners and I, failed him. The other biter I came
across was not unusual or bred poorly. He was indeed vicious ... from
severe prolonged abuse. It took over 6 months, but that ferret was
cured. I always used gloves. That was important. It was imperitive that
the animal not sense any fear from me. I had to be calm and confident
so she could feel my love and acceptance. I had to handle her as much
as possible allowing her to lick treats off my gloves and to see that
hands were nice. And I mean constant picking her up out of her cage for
treats and pets. I mean sitting with her several times a day for long
petting sessions. And lots of exposure throughout the day so she saw me
a lot. I did not allow her to roam free with me walking around to give
her any satisfaction in chasing or biting. I didn't want to accidently
reinforce any bad behavior. I took an agressive approach in other
words. With the other ferret, I took the old fashioned approach. I
think the old fashioned approach works for sweet babies with terrible
social skills, and or fear biting .. but not in the two cases I came
across.

You are right to take the deafness into consideration. Aggressive
ferrets who have been bounced around or mistreated and who are also
deaf seem to take a bit longer to rehab. The deaf are open to abuse
because most of the time, people don't know that they are deaf. Each
and every time they come up on them from behind, each and every time
the ferret does not react as they expect and each and every time they
discpline the animal for "not listening" is terribly traumatic for
them. Very emotionally scarring. But reversable in most cases. Just
take the deafness into consideration as you would with any deaf ferret.

Take extra, extra care that this little one always sees you coming.
If they have a strong startle reflex (like many of the DMK's), take
precautions for that. Calm, calm, calm. Consistent, consistent,
consistent. Give no strong feedback. Even positive ... keep it low key
and sweet. If your ferret calms down, has no startle reflex, has no
fear, then you can use big facial expressions for things. But for right
now, don't.

[Posted in FML 5952]