Hello, all, out in ferret land...
 
I'm a new person on the list, as well as a new (three day) ferret companion.
Coco is a six-month old female, sterling silver, I think....she's all white
with dark brown/black guard hairs but no mask and white paws.  Very cute.
Sweet, too, but she has a few habits I want to "nip in the bud."  :-)
 
She initiates play by biting our toes and leaping up and biting our calves.
How can we re-teach her an acceptable way to ask to play?  I don't mind her
wanting to play (we've discovered what fun the "blanket game" can be...),
but I really want to discourage her from biting.  I'm guessing since she's
so young, this biting thing isn't the mark of a mean animal, but rather the
play that a kitten or puppy will do.  So far, we've just been slapping her
butt lightly and saying "NO!"  She gives us that oh-so-intellegent-ferret
look and usually backs off.  Any other suggestions?
 
Beyond that, I wonder how many people keep collars on their ferrets all the
time.  I've put a collar on her with a bell (so we can FIND her in the
house), but twice I've (been lucky enough to) caught her getting caught in
her cage with it, so I've started taking it off before putting her away (she
seems to be like a baby....she won't go to sleep unless we shut her up in
her cage, but she gets cranky and more "bitting" as she gets tired...) and
putting it on when she comes out. Eventually, I'll have a nametag for it,
too, and I really think it's a good idea for her to have a bell and ID on if
she gets out in her curiosity....the problem is the collar is SO hard to get
on a wriggling little sucker.  :-)  Does anyone have any success with the
stretchy collars, or do they just come off to easy?
 
Glad to be here, and am sure that I'll learn more about ferrets this way
than I ever could by, for example, buying 20 books at the petstore.  :-)
 
Laurel
 
"a complicated life has so many opportunities..." -Karen Finley
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Laurel Gilbert, American Culture Studies     [log in to unmask]
Bowling Green State University, Ohio         http://www.bgsu.edu/~lgilber/
[Posted in FML issue 1328]