Finally, someone else that has a ferret that does this.  In our case
however, I suspected that this was a form of stereotypic behavior due
to severe neglect.  When we got Smoke, he had been rescued from a crate
type box/cage that was outside.  It was very enclosed.  He was seized due
to severe life threatening neglect.  Smoke was estimated to be at least
nearly three.  We have no idea how much of his life was spent in that
outside enclosure.  He is now 5-7 years of age.  He does the chopping
thing when ever he gets in a tight space.  He does it repetetively,
barely scraping what's above his head.  He will roll over on his back
and do this in the open also when he is either over stimmed or bored.
When he gets going with it, it's like he's totally enthralled with it,
and its hard to redirect him.  I agree it's really an odd and adorable
thing.  But we always assumed this might be from his abuse, so we could
not really smile much about it, ya know?
 
Out of curiousity, have you raised this ferret since it was a kit, or was
it a rescue?
 
Wolfy
[Posted in FML issue 4219]