Yo land Morris said that he is at his wits end with the two MF Pet store
ferrets.
 
IMHO
 
I have found with my two MF pet store ferrets that they calm down once they
have been allowed to explore the entire area visible to them.  Trying to
keep them cooped up into one area just doesn't work.  If they see you going
someplace, they want to go there as well.  They want free run of the area.
If you put newspapers in the corners (well taped down, so they can't get
under them) to take care of accidents, and properly ferret-proof the area
(In my house, that included getting outlet-plugs, because the outlets seem
to fascinate them) and watch them, they should be ok.
 
LITTER TRAINING
 
As far as litter training, I am having similar problems.  They are starting
to learn, though.  For one, I have found that they hate the kitty litter I
put in their boxes, replacing it with newspaper seems to have helped (I will
try the kitty pine stuff as soon as I can find some).  They are still only
at about 20% hit, but it is getting better.
 
BATHS
 
Neither of my ferrets particularly care for baths.  I tend to think the pet
store didn't do much in the way of bathing (heck, they even had the ages
_way_ off).  I still give them to them, say lots of nice things while doing
it, and make it fairly quick and painless.  Sandy will always poop in the
tub to show me how displeased he is, though :-)
 
PET STORE
 
I think pet store ferrets are different than the ones from breeders.
Depending on age (mine are a year old each, the pet store told me they were
12 montsh), they may have picked up some bad habits, been mishandled by
patrons etc.  Who knows, right?
 
Just give them time and lots of patience.  They aren't like cats or dogs,
they are definately unique.  I have found that out :-)
 
Anyway, I am by no means an expert.  I'm only about a month into the whole
Ferret thing.  Good luck!
 
Pete Brown
[Posted in FML issue 1648]