Had mail router problems but they have been found.  Sorry about the
tag-along.
 
A and M are annoyed with me, and I can understand why, though calling
hitting and inserting bad tastes physical punishments certainly did not mean
that I assumed A and M were also hitting.  If anyone did assume that then
let me say that it was pointed out that they were not hitting and I am sorry
that I gave a wrong impression.  Still, we have had something over a dozen
years of experience with a great number of ferrets so I DO lump hitting and
forcing bad tastes together as physical punishments and as punishments
which can confuse ferrets (as I do the method we used when we were new to
ferrets -- having them smell a bit a toothpaste which did NOT touch them,
something we have not done in many, many years).  Why?  Because when they
backfire they do so in the same way.  Heck, at this point we have helped
retrain more than a few ferrets who belonged to others, or were mishandled,
or were mistreated, or just plain had owners who did not recognize which of
their own responses were so strongly primate ones that some kits simply have
trouble recognizing what they mean even though they are obvious to us and
would be to many other primates.
 
When such methods backfire it can take a half year or more to reinstate
trust and a LOT of loving time is lost to both the humans and the ferrets.
Believe me, when we help others who have difficulties it is heart breaking
to find their ferrets trusting us more than they trust them.  No one here
should have to suffer through that.  I am not angry with you or trying to
insult you in any way and apologize for it coming off that way; we just
want your ferrets to have their closest love and trust for YOU  two and to
have it always.  Whatever I say you will be the ones who decide which
methods you use at various times and how those will evolve during the many
years you probably will have ferrets (given the high rate we've seen in the
past of people continuing with ferrets).  Frankly, most  techniques will
probably work with the majority of ferrets, but we have found that
emulating ferret behavior and using time out have the most consistent,
cuddly, trusting, never-bite-again-at-all results.  Fortunately, the more
years a person has with ferrets the easier such patient, consistent,
out-of-our-Primates Order behavior comes naturally for us all.  No one is
ever too old to learn.  Heck, I hope to continue doing so for at least
three to five decades more.
 
When folks are new with ferrets and have a 'problem' one they tend to give
up too quickly with techniques which echo a ferret's own behavior; it IS
very hard to recognize when our own behavior might be too primate-specific
and it is also a bit hard to learn to act like another species, let alone
one in a different order.  Even though I was an animal handler who worked
with many types of critters before it took me a while.  That is normal and
fine.  Some individuals DO take longer.  (With some disabilities or rough
past histories they can take MUCH longer.  Heck, we have one with
chronically painful multiple disabilities and retardation who hasn't put a
mouth on anyone in 2 years now, but because of all her medical disadvantages
it meant 3 years of consistent scruff-hiss-time out, and constantly
perforated and bruised bodies for us.  With all her problems she would have
very likely been put down long ago by many humans.  Now it is so cute; when
she realizes that she is becoming emotional -- either overly excited or
upset -- she will move a few feet away and just lie there peeking at us now
and then till she feels calm enough.  Yes, she gives HERSELF time out; I
wish I had learned to do that by three years old.)
 
Yes, Bob is right; fitch is a folk word.  The reason I use it for the one I
mentioned a while back is that she was not an animal from pet stock so her
line was based on pelt quality rather than being selected for behavior as
the ferrets typically discussed here have been for a number of generations.
I DO expect critters which have not been selected for behavior to have the
potential to be harder to work with, and I know that a number of other
ferret folks who have been around for some time use the words the same way
because of a bad bout many years ago when some disreputable people began
selling fur animals as pets with some very bad press resulting.  This does
not mean that I would wear fur, or that I believe that such animals can not
be trained (They can and they have.), or in any other way think that they
should have to remain as fur providers.  The ones I have known just do not
typically train with the same ease as most pet stock ( even allowing for the
occasional slow learner/stubborn one/whatever), and those I met and read
many reports about way back when tended to give far worse bites than a pet
stock animal gives when it is learning.  With these it is even MORE
important to avoid primate punishment techniques and to stick with ferret
behaviors to train them to be gentle.
 
Now I have to wonder what else Bob may have recently taught.  Hmmm, I
over-explain; does this mean that like 1 in every 400 women I am an XY
female if the trait is to be assumed to be on the Y as Bob said?  If not, do
I have a tag along segment cut out by some nasty virus in Dad's gonads?  <G>
(Speaking of tag-alongs; please, accept our apology for that post which was
trying to reach Steve from Art in Ohio (which NEVER arrived here as it
should have) but instead showed up on the fml as some sort of passenger
(Neat!  It was good news and thankfully NOT personal.  Thanks, BIG, for
letting us know about a happy thing from a friend.), and Grace, thanks for
the info which we will pass to Art.  Bad sorter, bad, bad!  Spooky how much
the communisphere is like genetics, isn't it?) Bob may also have put his
finger on why I can't find my jeweler's loop, either.  Hmmm!  I guess it's
just true that biologists rule.
 
'Chopper is once again becoming extremely physically active, and while we
have not found her swinging by her forelegs from the chandelier in recent
days as we did only a few years back we had to take her off a 5' high
standing desk yesterday.  Unfortunately, she is also challenging Meltdown
more, and since it has been 7 and 1/2 years since we removed Meltie from the
shadow -- bit of an exaggeration -- of Three Mile Island she is not as good
at asserting herself as she had been.  Yes, we are watching Meltie more in
case this may signal a hard to detect health problem, or in case age may
make it more comfortable for her to have some time without the organic
helicopter.
 
Thanks again, Bill!  You are right.  Ann Jeglum was the vet whose chemo
protocol saved Bandit from lympho (This was actual, proven to exist by
tissue biopsies, rather than suspected.  There is also a very kind gent here
whose ferret had suspected lympho and who went a different route with good
results, so I need to differentiate between the cases.  Hi, G!).
 
   Sukie, Steve, Meltdown, Ruffle, 'Chopper, Spot, Meeteetse, and Warp
[Posted in FML issue 1481]