Hello, I just wanted to share my excitement!  My boyfriend brought me a
new baby today.  We had visited a local pet store on monday as he had
seen what he thought was a black eyed white.  He wasn't sure because he
is new to ferrets and wanted to make sure before he bought one of them.
Black eyed white female has been on my wish list for around 7 years now.
There were 2 at the shop, both girls but the first one I held was a biter
and didn't like being held.  So today he went back and bought the other
one and we named her Daisy Dook.  She is the second female I've had in
almost 9 years, Tavi my very first ferret is also a female the other 6
were/are males.
 
Her name may change, I'm not sure yet.  I know it sounds odd but
sometimes my ferrets "tell" me what to call them.  Like Jasper, he was
nameless for 3 days.  Then one day while we were playing "Jasper" just
popped into my head.  I like to think he chose the name =)  So far she
is responding to "Daisy" so I think it will stick.
 
The boys (Skooder & Smokey) have been teaching her about treats, though
she still doesn't like Ferretone.  We have been trying to box train her
but she will just hop out and run off, I have to chase her down 4 or 5
times.  This last time Smokey came and showed her that poop was to be
done in the box and so she complied!  Smokey is a bit jealous, probably
why he came and used the box I was trying to teach Daisy in.  He has
always been a nut that didn't like to be petted but today was the
scratches and pet marathon.  He lay in my arms, on my lap for a good 15
minutes letting me scratch him and I could have sworn he asked for his
name to be changed from Smokey Devil Bad Ferret to Smokey Devil Mommas
Boy.  Skooder isn't too sure yet, he mostly just follows her around
sniffing her.
 
Tavi isn't much interested in Daisy.  Tavi will be 9 soon and doesn't
have the energy she once had.  I held Daisy and let Tavi introduce
herself by cleaning Daisy's ears a little bit.  Tavi was going to try to
drag her around to establish her alpha female role but gave up after
about 15 seconds, poor old gal.
 
Daisy is clausterphobic (sp?) I think.  My boyfriend said she was
freaking out in the box on the way home.  Then later I put her in the
small cage and she went nuts biting the bars.  Might be she has never
been in an actual cage.  She was in a pin type cage with plexiglass
instead of wire at the petshop.  We will see what happens when I put
her in the large cage later.
 
On ferret painting---we just moved into a new house and the babies have
their own room.  We put thick plastic on the original carpet then put
industrial carpet on top of that.  There is plexiglass blocking the
doorway so we can keep the door open all the time without worrying about
them escaping.  The room is neat because the window sills are low to the
ground, Smokey likes to lay on them in the sun.  Anyway, I tried to do
the ferret foot painting on the plexiglass.  I have one of those ferret
crossing signs velcro'd to the front of it and thought it would look neat
if there were little paw prints on the glass.  Bad idea lol, it just came
out as swirl marks because they started weasel war dancing as soon as I
put them on it.  We might try that again some other time though.  I also
thought it would be neat if each of them put their seal of approval on
the bright white window sills.  A different bright color for each one and
then their names next to the prints.
 
Dooks to all!
Laura & Tavi, Skooder, Smokey & Daisy
[Posted in FML issue 4267]