I've been reading accounts of people who have ferrets that don't get along,
and my husband (not SO =P) and I have this sinking feeling that we may have
a potential incompatibility on our hands.  Most of our five ferrets get
along really well, dooking around and rough housing.  Sometimes one of them
(usually crybaby Cwynn) gets an ear nipped a little too hard or get
overzealous and hangs on too long, but no one's ever gotten seriously hurt
(no cuts, punctures, etc.) and everyone jumps back into the fray with zest.
At the end of the day, we usually find them curled up in a big fuzzy ball on
a heap of stolen socks behind Martin's desk.
 
However, we're currently keeping one of our ferrets away from the others
because we've had problems with him bullying the other ferrets.  Usually,
when the other ferrets are engaged in wargames, we see them pouncing after
each other, dooking wildly, and one or both will hiss and yelp if the other
bit a particularly sensitive area, but they will both keep playing with each
other, and it's obvious that they're getting along fine.  However, when this
ferret is out with the others, at first he's well mannered, plays the same
way, but then after a few minutes he gets very rough, clamping down on the
other ferret's throat and not letting go and dragging them into a corner and
shaking his head a lot, and the other ferrets start running away from him.
He's bigger than the others, and as quick, so he usually ends up snagging
one of the other four somehow and brings them down by flopping down on their
backs, and chomps and bites and kicks at them.  As before, he hasn't drawn
blood, but the other ferrets do not like him, and have learned to hide and
run away now when we bring him out of the cage to try to reconcile the five
of them.
 
What should we do?  We've put Bitter Apple all over the necks and backs
of the other ferrets in an effort to pursuade him not to be so rough, but
he either ignores the Bitter Apple or finds an unprotected area to bite
down on.
 
                  M & A G.-R.
 
Molly, first and smallest cuddly cinammon female
Obelix, clumsiest and sweetest big sable male
Mithril, the silver sausage, a.k.a. That Pig Who Ate My Sock Yesterday,
Wookie, biggest and oldest black silver mitt male
Cwynn, youngest beautiful butterscotch male who still thinks toes are
       some sort of wonderfully large kibbles for him to eat.
[Posted in FML issue 1525]