I have posted recently about my Casey ferret (2yr/female) and my new 10
week old female, Misty.  Casey hates Misty and they have been separated for
almost a month.  The few times Casey has interacted with Misty have been
pretty bad.  Casey locks her jaw around Misty's neck and the baby cries and
cries.
 
Today, I decided to let them go at it a bit longer (1-2 minutes at most).
Casey grabbed Misty and shook her and then Misty got away, ran into her
cage and was trapped in the litterbox.  Casey chased after her and pinned
her down.  Misty was squeaking the whole time but as I watched, it looked
like Casey was mostly pinning her with her body but wasn't biting unless
the baby moved.  I'm figuring that if Casey really was going to kill her,
she would have continued biting over and over and wouldn't let go.  It
looked as if Casey was only biting (and shaking) if the baby tried to move -
like it was defensive, only if she perceived a threat.  I'm not sure but it
just looked like Casey was "reacting" to the baby, not necessarily
"attacking" her (once she had her pinned anyway.)
 
I finally separated them and I looked the baby over and she had two good
teeth mark-dents in her neck that were red and may have broken the skin.
Other than that she was fine so I assume those marks were from the first
viscious bite but after that Casey was "more gentle" if I can even say that!
 
What do you all think?  Do you think there's a chance for them and should I
try this again in a few days?  I don't want to traumatize the baby but I
think Casey needs the opportunity to see that she's not a threat.
 
Do I have to worry about those kinds of bite marks?  Is that really bad?
 
Thanks!
 
Adrienne
[Posted in FML issue 2366]