I rarely get to see ferrets other than my own, aside from the babies Petco
always has, so I never realized how big my boy Chadley is until the first
time I took him to a ferret-knowledgable vet, and the staff there marvelled
over his size. He's a five year old MF boy, so he must have been neutered
very young (although he didn't come to me until he was an adult), and he
weighs in at a little over five pounds. And it isn't *all* fat, although
he does love to eat <g>. His "sister", Dana (also a MF baby), is about
one-third his size and appears to have reached her full growth at eight
months of age. I know female ferrets are naturally small in comparison to
males, but she seems tiny to me. They eat Iams kitten with TF (when I can
get it), supplemented with Ferretvite and Ferretone (their favorite
treats), so I feel she's gotten adequate nutrition. How big should an
adult female be, and at what age do they usually stop growing?
Also, when we got Dana as a small kit, she was a nipper. She quickly
learned that was not acceptable behavior but she still can't resist toes -
people toes, the cats' toes, any toes at all. I have very sensitive feet
and although she doesn't bite them hard, I cannot *stand* having my toes
nipped. I'm afraid in my attempts to get my toes away from her teeth I'm
going to accidentally step on her one of these days. I can hardly walk
through a room without her gleefully chasing after my feet. I have tried
telling her "NO", I have tried time-outs, but either she can't get it
through her head to leave the toes alone or just finds them too
irresistable, and I feel badly that she ends up spending too much time in
her cage after nipping mine. (The time-outs tend to be consecutive.) Has
anyone else dealt with a similar problem? Maybe it's just something she'll
outgrow in time....
Cheri Johnson
Chadley - "When do we eat?"
Dana - "Lemme at those toes!"
The eight kitties - "Quick! Hide your toes! The ferrets are out!"
Alex the dog - "Can you get this weasel out of my food?"
[Posted in FML issue 2579]
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