Hi all.  Hope you and your fuzzies are well this snowy March day.  The
reason for this post is to get your opinions on why one of our 8 month
sable males, Jasper, decided to bite.
 
The background is that, with the exception of nipping, and biting sock
covered toes and ankles, both of the boys are extremely gentle and have
never bit my husband or I.  In fact they had never bitten anyone until a
couple of weeks ago when a friend's 9 year old son was Jasper's first
victim.  This was Jasper's first contact with the boy and his sister, and
only reacted to the boy whose hand he bit IMMEDIATELY after being placed
gently in the boy's arms.  Jasper clamped down on the web between Eric's
thumb and forefinger, and would NOT let go.  To Eric's credit, he didn't
freak out,try to yank his hand away, drop Jasper or otherwise harm him.
We simply had to pry Jasper's jaws away from Eric's hand and put him back
in his cage.
 
Thinking that this was an isolated incident, and maybe related to food that
Eric may have had on his hands, or even Eric's particular body chemistry,
we scratched our heads, but didn't give it much more thought.  However,
this weekend, we had some people over, and granted -- the house was pretty
noisy, but, the boys were out of the main part of the house and not
subjected to unsupervised "attention" -- and Jasper, again, had a little
biting problem.  This time, my husband had him out, showing him around,
and got distracted so he asked me to put Jasper back.  Jasper then promptly
bit down on MY wrist, hard enough to draw blood, and would NOT let go,
even when I tried to scruff him.  Later in the day when I went to pet and
reassure him, he repeated the biting behavior (again breaking the skin) on
the other wrist.  I didn't discipline him on either occassion (other than
telling him "NO" and putting him back in his cage).
 
I realize that part of the problem is that we should be taking Willie
(Jasper's brother) out to show guests instead of Jasper (Willie is the
calmer, more cuddly, less squirmy of the two), however, I'm concerned about
what may be causing this behavior in Jasper.  Since it's so unusual, we
feel that he's reacting to a specific stimulus and perhaps is feeling
threatened or overwhelmed --- maybe even knowing that he'll get put back in
his safe and secure cage if he misbehaves in the extreme (although, I would
have thought that if he was that distressed or upset with us, he would have
"poofed" since he and Willie both have their scent glands and use them
on occassion to show their displeasure with us).  We'd like to try to
determine what the stressor may be and be sensitive to it in the future
to remedy the situation before it occurs again.  It should also be noted
that while the little guys are somewhat isolated from people, except for
my husband and I, on a daily basis, they have always seemed to be well
socialized, getting along well with guests, the vets and their staffs, and
kennel employees (who rave about having them out and playing with them for
hours a day).
 
I know a great many of you have busy households, and/or take your ferrets
out in public for pleasure or shows, and am wondering if you have had
similar problems and whether or not you've been successful in desensitizing
your fuzzy, if in fact the problem is over stimulation or being overwhelmed
by the noise and activity.
 
Thanks for your help!
 
 ;)
Pam
[Posted in FML issue 3348]