Judy wrote:
>lot of time socializing them to be sweet and as cuddly as a young ferret
>can be.  Then I send them out with a new owner and get a call that they
>are biting.  Careful questioning and watching has shown me one thing.  The
>majority of people complaining about their young ferrets biting are causing
>it themselves.  Now before you get out the flame throwers ....take a good
>look at what you are doing.
 
You are right in that statement.  We've had ferrets for a very long while
now (over 15 years -- 16? 17? 18?) and you just plain are right.
 
Biggest things we realized: some biting is just part of teething trouble
(Try Cheweasels and have vet check teeth.), some is people doing things
which encourage the behavior, some is caused by physical punishment.
 
These are only main causes, and there's a lot more to it, of course, but
it's like dealing with any other critter, the humans tend to expect the
animal to do all the learning and accommodating but then think that the
humans also have the superior intellects.  HUH?????  I figure whoever does
the most learning and works to finding reasonable solutions which fit the
biological patterns of both species is the one exhibiting the most
intelligence.  So, if you think you are a member of an intelligent species
one of the best ways to show it by learning what is fitting for other
species and then finding creative solutions.  Troy Lynn showed a marvelous
example today when she talked about using smell bafflement to stop
ferret-to-ferret bullying.  For biting we best like times-out repeated as
often as needed.  A very smart person here creatively modified that to make
it as boring as possible by having times-out in a carry cage.
 
A excellent trainer once said that he'd found that it wasn't really the
dogs he was training; it was the owners.  He got it right, too.
 
Hey, if we could learn then anyone can; it's just a matter to letting go
of the excuses and actually doing it!
[Posted in FML issue 2843]