Since we have numerous animals here at Critter Camp and have had
experience with dozens of species from mice to foxes & kinkajous, with
ferrets smack in the middle I have to say that I am amazed that anyone
can even imagine that a ferret could physically chew off a baby's
fingers at all. I mean really- their mouths are not made to do that.
To eat they would tear, gnaw at best but not chomp off digits- and
even that would take immense provication as well as an incredible
length of time.

Physically, people, it just is not possible in the realm of common
sense.

Question for those of you who live feed- how long does it take a ferret
to eat a mouse? Now imagine that per finger- really? What were the
parents, comatose? And a ferret would be 'full' if not tired after a
few - not 7! The motivation to keep eating them would not outweigh the
struggle, the screaming, & the difficulty of the actual chewing. It
isnt realistic.

A ferret's mouth is maybe half the size of a cat's - how often to you
hear of a cat biting off anyone's fingers? Never. It doesnt happen.
The jaw strength just isnt there for cats or ferrets to get thru a
human bone without a lot of difficulty - even a baby's.

Now what you do hear of is dogs doing it. They have the bite force and
jaw strength to do so in one chomp- quickly and before there is any
struggle. The family supposedly has a rotweiler and has had calls to
their home before because of the dog.

Obviously what happened is what has always happened in these cases- the
dog attacked a person and the people did not want the dog to be put
down so they blamed the ferret. Since there is so much misinformation
about ferrets and their abilities to attack, people believe it and the
case is closed.

I wish the entire ferret community would stand up and state that this
is just not feasible - it physically could not have happened without
extraordinary bizarre circumstances, even then it is just not
physically realistic at all. Sure a starving ferret could feasibly
start to chew on a baby's hand but it is not going to just sit there
and gnaw away at flailing hands for an hour trying to get thru the
bone-

A macaw could chomp off a finger, a dog too, a rat if provoked can
shred your hand but not chew off a finger, a kinkajou will tear your
ear off your head but not bite thru bone, a rabbit can bite the crap
out of you & leave a nasty huge bruise, but not chew off digits, a fox
can gnaw at & try to chew at a finger but depending on the breed of
fox it would also take a long time, a cat- not likely, a sugar glider
can shred you like a rat, a hamster slices, and an iguana can bite down
to the bone- and yeah i know first hand what they all can do! And ive
been bitten by ferrets too- they compare to a small cat or a fennec
fox- gnawing-- not forceful like a dog or iguana or macaw.

Beth
www.crittercamp.org 

[Posted in FML 6944]