My husband and I own two female ferrets, Tica, who we got in January, and
Mole', who we added to our family about a month ago.  We were already
when we added Mole' to be protecting her from Tica, but instead Mole' has
become the dominant ferret (even though she is 1/2 the size of Tica).  No
blood has ever been drawn, and neither one of them has ever screamed.
Lately Tica has started to wrestle back and will even initiate the
wrestling match, which is always accompanied by lots of dooking, and
occasionally one of them will hiss (usually Tica).  A few nights ago we
caught them using the same water bottle at the same time.  So we figured
that they would want to sleep together, but no go so far.  We were
wondering if we should just wait till nature takes it's course and hope
that they are willing to sleep together soon, or if we should "encourage"
them to share a cage.  Last week we put both of them in the same cage
when it was bed time (then kept a watchful eye on them to see if it would
work).  Tica got in the hammock and prepared to sleep, then Mole' decided
that she wanted to sleep in the hamock, so she got in there and basically
bit and grabbed at Tica until she left the hamock (no screaming, just
hissing).  Before Tica left the hammockshe licked Mole' head, in what
looked to us to be a sweet way (not to anthropomorphize or anything :)).
Then went to the lower story to be let out, which we did and put her in
the other cage.
       They question is: Should we repeat the cage combonation so they
get the idea that being in the same cage is normal, or should we wait to
do that till we catch them sleeping together before we combine them?
Thanks for putting up with my long post.  -E.C.  and Joe
 
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Erika C. Shugart                        Department of Biology
[log in to unmask]         University of Virginia
[Posted in FML issue 1224]