Hi there!  I just want to say that what you are doing is very admirable;
don't give up!  *g* ... we adopted a couple of brothers who were whole, and
bit just like you describe... nailed me and my husband hard and deep enough
to draw blood!  But even when I was ready to despair, we just hung in there
(my husband has the patience of a saint)... and now Gandalf the White and
Gowron the Psychoferret (named thus because if he even *saw* you, he'd run
at you and bite you) are the sweetest babes.... they will put their teeth
on our fingers every once in a while, but they never bite down.  We just
trained them by yelling 'No Bite!!' and scruffing them and hissing at them.
We used to have to dress in long sleeves and always wear socks and shoes..
now we can go barefoot and wear no sleeves, if we want.  We still have to
be wary of them, and I'll never trust them with others completely, but even
our friends' kids can pet them and hold them - they just know not to play
rough with them so as to not get them excited, which is when they seem to
forget and bite a little hard.
 
One day, it'll just happen!  It was like they all of a sudden decided that
they liked the treats and the cuddles and realized that the scruffing and
the biting were related somehow, and that with their new human friends they
couldn't bite like they bite their playmates.  (ferrets have really tough
skins, and can take roughhousing better than humans can) So hang in there!
They just need human attentions and treats, cuddles, admonishments, and
just plain love will work wonders....
 
Telaraj, Miles, and the SuperSweet Sixteen
[Posted in FML issue 2482]