hi.  i've had mollie since april.  she was VERY little when we got her,
(petsmart) 6 or 7 weeks.  when i used to give her chewy stars, she would
grab them and scream really loud if we moved a little while we handed them
to her.  occasionally, if we were giving her ferretone on a finger, and we
moved our fingers a little bit, she would clamp down HARD on the finger
and scream.  that was a long time ago, and she gradually got out of that
sort of behavior.  other than playing carefully, she's not much of a
biter.
 
so 2 times in the past 4 days, she has clamped down HARD on someone's
finger.  once on her daddy, and once on my friend paul.  there is no food
involved, and there is no provocation, and she holds on and SCREAMS.  she
was stuck on over a minute both times.  once we pry her mouth open (of
course we're careful- but water doesnt work nor does scruffing her or
(very gently) grabbing her whisker.  is this strange?  i've had ferrets
when i was young, and none ever behaved like that.  my other 2 dont do it
either.  someone told me that ferrets taken away from their mother
sometimes behave strangely.  other than this behavior, mollie is the best
behaved ferret ever.  i'm perplexed.  i dont know if the screaming is
indicative of something is wrong, or if she's just scared for some strange
reason.  when it happens, once she lets go, i usually hold her and kiss
her while the "victim" cleans up all of the blood (i'm not kidding- this
last time, she drew A LOT of blood!).  any ideas?
 
-lalisa
[Posted in FML issue 3601]