>My hubby tried to pet her, and all He** broke loose. she went berzerk, bit
>him and bit me three times.  is it possible that she has made a gender
>connection with her old home, and the adult male that was less than kind...
 
I think this is possible, but don't assume the worst.  She's a biter, and
you're the one working with her.  You haven't taught her not to bite
everyone, yet, just not YOU.
 
>My ten year old son can handle her without fear, she is friendlier to him
>than she is even to me...
 
My ferret is not a biter, but he only kisses women and children.  I think
sometimes they just have preferences.  My husband begs for kisses all the
time, and NEVER ever gets them.  Then when I pick the little rascal up,
he licks my face as long as I let him.
 
>Also, my husband is rather apprehensive around her...  he saw the way she
>laid into me the first few times...  could his fear be making her nervous?
 
Yes.  I am relatively new to Mustelids, but I have quite a bit of experience
with mean, biting animals.  If a person is nervous around a nervous animal
he is likely to get bitten by a dog, thrown or kicked by a horse, or have a
cat come curl up in his lap (I know, cats are weird).  So, what you've
really got are TWO nervous animals to deal with: the ferret, and your poor
husband.  The more he gets bit, the more nervous he will be.  The more
nervous he is, the more nervous the ferret will be when he approaches her.
It sounds like you're doing a great job, and should have your husband start
where you did.  My aunt has a really MEAN cat.  There are a couple of things
that would soothe her when we wanted to pet her.  My aunt would rub her
hands all over ours, mixing the scents.  Then she would hold her hands out
to the cat to sniff.  The cat would usually go kinda berserk smelling our
scent on her hands, but then my aunt would talk nice and pet her, and pretty
soon we were able to hand feed her treats.  Maybe something like this would
work for you and your husband.  Wait until she's hungry, get going with
feeding her some treats, make his hands smell like yours, then let him offer
her some of the treat.  Remind your husband that he's probably 100 times the
size of the ferret and could break her neck with one hand.  She has more
reason to be afraid of him, than he of her.  Good luck!
 
-Catherine
[Posted in FML issue 1410]