Well, my wife and I finally did it.  We decided to go ahead and get another
ferret for a total of 2.  (I know, I know, all you multiple owners out there
are saying "ooooo, a whole two ferrets?" That's about all we can handle
right now.) Anyway, we bought a 7 week old baby silver mitt from a local
store.  They are fairly knowledgable about ferrets and it's a "mom and pop"
type store, not a chain or mall store.  The cost was ok ($119) and she was
adorable, otherwise I would have held out until I could have gone to the
store we purchased our first at.  We named the new one, at the advice of my
father-in-law, Bits.  this name came about because our first one is named
Nibbles.  So now we have Nibbles and Bits (like Kibbles and Bits).  Bits
also fit because when we were clipping her nails, Kathy had ferretone on her
finger and wanted Bits to lick it off and she bit her right through the
finger.  Neither ferret has drawn blood on me, but both have now bitten
Kathy while they were still babies.
 
OK, two questions:
 
1.  Bits came with a different guarantee certificate than Nibbles did and
Nibbles is Marshall Farms.  She is also missing the tatoo in the ear so I
know she isn't MF.  I'm not sure if smaller farms guarantee their ferrets
so I'm guessing Bits is Path Valley.  The guarantee address is Athens,
PA.  Is that Path Valley?
 
2.  I've read all the articles in the past months about introducing two
ferrets and Nibbles seemed bothered a bit and started the usual attacking
and (attempted, she's not too good at it) dragging around of Bits by the
scruff, but since Sunday (we bought Bits on Saturday) Nibbles has started
hissing a lot around Bits.  She even hissed when I was holding her and
Bits came into view.  Even though she didn't try to wrench herself free
of my grip.  She just sat in my hands and hissed.  Sometimes she'll just
be sitting there and hiss at Bits instead of attacking and occassionally
Bits won't even be in sight and Nibbles will hiss.  Is this normal
behavior?  It didn't happen the first day, but now has become a a habit
with her.  Any ideas?
 
Oops, one more.
 
3.  Since Bits doesn't seem to be afraid of Nibbles and doesn't run and
hide when she sees her, I'm assuming there won't be any problems with
them getting along eventually.  Nibbles hasn't hurt her during the
domination struggles and Bits even chuckles during some of the fights,
but how long should I expect the struggle to go on?  Nibbles has a hell
of a time getting Bits' scruff because she flails around too much.  Will
Nibbles continue until she can get  Bits a few times really good with
dragging around?
 
Thanks,
Jim, Kathy, Nibbles and Bits
[Posted in FML issue 1278]