Hello everyone!
We are currently having problems with one of our two ferrets and are open
to any suggestions that you may have. They are both twelve and a half
weeks old and we have had them since they were six weeks old. Our male,
Ottar, is a very mellow sort of fellow, and Bandit, our little girl, is
extremely spunky. We have been having a lot of problems with her in the
past couple of weeks. She chews on his ears (until he screams and we make
her stop) and the food dish, which we remedied with bitter apple. She is
still terribly mean to him, dragging him around by his ears, and pestering
him until he leaves the hammock to sleep on the floor or in the litterbox.
Also, in the past couple of weeks she has decided, after three weeks of
using the litterbox diligently, that she doesn't need to use the box anymore
and that she needs to go on the floor of the cage. We realize that by him
sleeping in the litterbox on occasion that they will smell his "sleep scent"
in there and not use it as it is supposed to be. Whenever we see him
sleeping in it we put him in the hammock and everything is fine. We thought
that maybe they thought that the litter was too dirty and didn't want to use
it, but that doesn't seem to be it either. When we clean it, he starts
sleeping in it again when she kicks him out. Is there any way that we can
try to break her of going on the floor and using the litterbox again? I
reward them with Ferretone when they go in the litterbox when I see it and
swat them on the head when they go on the floor and I see it. When they do
go on the floor I pick them up and put them in the litterbox and tell them
that this is where they are supposed to go and then clean it up. I've even
started telling them that they have to go potty in the litterbox before they
can come out and play and he runs right down the ramp and jumps in and goes
and I give him Ferretone and let him out. She, on the other, would rather
get on the floor and go to the bathroom right in front of me while I'm
watching her.
I have also tried every kind of discipline that I can think of and none of
them seem to work. We started out snapping their noses when they were bad,
but she would run right back over and start doing the same thing again as
soon as she was put down. Then I went to swatting them on the head with one
finger and that didn't do any good either. Then I went to swatting her with
my open hand on her head (using 3 or 4 fingers) and that doesn't seem to
work either. Is bitter apple bad to put in their mouth when they do
something bad? She hates it, of course, but I did it once and she stopped
misbehaving once I put her back in the cage. I'm just afraid that it could
hurt her if she had that done a lot.
Is it possible to discipline them by only rewarding them when they are good
and not doing anything when they are bad? Would that work?
She is usually good when she is out of the cage playing with him, but while
she is in the cage she is nasty. We think that it is because she thinks
that she should be out more, but they get out every chance I have to let
them out. We are both college students and both have part-time jobs on the
weekends, so sometimes they don't get let out as much as we would like, but
that is why we bought two of them instead of one. They are in my dorm room
right now, we will be getting an apartment in a few more weeks. I have
thought about giving her toys to play with, but they are all noisy and I'm
afraid that they will be found if they are too loud. I also can't leave
them out at night to play because they need to be supervised while they are
out becuase they get into my roomates belongings.
I am about at the end of my rope right now with her because I just don't
know what to do. I would greatly appreciate ANY ideas or suggestions that
you could give me on any or all of these problems. I'm sorry that this was
such a long messege. Thank you for reading it and giving us a hand with her.
Susan and Aaron
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Aaron Hale
[Posted in FML issue 2298]
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