Hello everyone!
 
I need some advice....Jackie, my VERY dominant male is a REAL BULLY!  He
always fights to the finish with new kids to make sure they know he is top
ferretboy, but, he is getting pretty vicious with my new shelter rescue,
Buddy.  I have been through 18 years of "getting to know you" fights and
ferret dominance wars, but this is really bad.  He is a real mama's boy
too.  He loves to be held and snuggle with me, and his best friends are 2
of the other ferkids, and, he keeps his distance from my sweet old girl,
Lily. I have used a squirt gun, which worked for a bit, and I put him in
his time-out cage, but now I'm wondering about using bitter apple, or
something.  He has never been quite this mean before to a new kid.  The
new guy, Buddy, is a 2 year old sable male and has not been around other
ferrets before, and never had a whole lot of attention in his previous
home.  He is VERY sweet and was scared of all the others at first, now he
is only scared of Jackie, and stays hidden all day long until I get him
and hug him, feed him separately with one of the other kids (so he can be
used to eating with others).  Then he is ok until he sees Jackie, then he
is outta there.
 
Jackie has made a couple of bad looking sores on the scruff of Buddy's neck
and I know they must really hurt.  I know they won't kill each other, and I
know it may take 3-4 months for this dominance to be established by Jackie
(Buddy knows who the king is!)
 
Any advice on how to get the poor guy through this will help.  I thought
about keeping Jackie separate for an extended period of time, but that
would only delay the fight until later.
 
THANKS!
Shannon and the nine nosy nincompoops: Lily, Violet, Sammo, Jackie (the big
bully), Sophie, Maxwell, Little Bear, Flower and Buddy (OH OH - there's the
bully!)
[Posted in FML issue 3048]