My lovely female MF (and proud of it :) ) ferret is just as stubborn as
her pet human (me).  I know she is still young, only 3 months old, but I
am having the toughest time reinforcing certain ideas.
 
Nipping and Biting:
 
        She doesn't do it out of evil intentions.  She won't just walk up to you
and bite you.  She mostly does it when she wants to play, but her play
gets really rough sometimes and if she gets a hold of some soft part of
skin (like the "web" between your thumb and index finger) you hev to get
her off or start looking for an earring to put in the hole (and start a
new body piercing trend).  Fingers and ears are particularly her
favorite.  (Home ear piercing for a fraction of the cost :)  )  I've
posted about this before and tried flicking when she bites really hard
and Bitter Apple, which she is so used to that she'll sniff your hand to
find someplace not covered in Bitter Apple and bite there instead.
Actually, I think she's starting to get used to Bitter Apple and doesn't
mind it so much.  :(  Cage time doesn't work well because she's in the
cage most of the day and night (she gets an hour or two of free time) and
until I solve my other dilemma, which I will explain shortly, I'm
reluctant to give her more freedom.  Is there anything I can do?
 
        My other problem is her litter training.  Call her lazy, call her
absent-minded, she has a problem when it comes to going in the litterbox.
 It's not that she won't use it, she will, just not consistently.  She'll
often poop from the second level of her cage, which is just a landing
between the first and third levels, and she'll poop in the corner where
the litterbox doesn't cover but is right next to the box.  The second
level I could probably understand because the litterpan is right below
that landing, but why would she poop in that one corner when the
litterpan is an extremely short hop away (as in, right next to her)?
I've cleaned the cage with bleach cleaner in the corners I don't want her
to go in, but that doesn't work.  I even sprayed Bitter Apple in those
corners (because she knows the smell) to disuade her, but since the poop
comes from the end that doesn't smell (as in the verb, not the adjective
:) ) it doesn't make a difference.  I reward her when I see her poop in
the litterpan with either Ferretone or I let her out of the cage, but she
doesn't seem to be learning.  I even put a shirt she used to sleep in on
the second level to show her that it's a better resting place than a
pooping place, but she pooped on the shirt.  Should I put cardboard down
on the second level floor to stop the poop from dropping through the
floor into the litterpan?  I really need someone nearby to come and give
me some pointers and I'm joining a ferret club for that reason, but until
then any advice you can give will be appreciated.
 
 
Jim and Nibbles ("What a soft place to put my butt while I poop!")
[Posted in FML issue 1069]