Hullo,
 
I moved house this past weekend and now I'm in a nice, noisy (it's right at
an intersection) one bedroom apartment that came practically ferret proofed.
Both cages (Potpie's and Noodle/Friday/Easel's) cages are in the living
room, so all the ferrets are climbing all over themselves to get in to sniff
at each other.  Maybe someone out there can help me figure out what this
means: Potpie is an only ferret, has been all her life.  She screeches and
is terrified - doesn't even fight back - when aggressive ferrets approach
her.  Poop flies, she runs.  If an uninterested ferret approaches her, she
viciously attacks them and goes for the vitals - eyes, throat, belly.
 
HOWEVER, when she's meeting ferrets through cage bars - hers or theirs - she
happily plays 'mouth' where both ferrets mock-fight with open mouths.  I'm
convinced this is not done aggressively simply because her body language is
*very* different when she does this than when the ferrets aren't separated
by cage bars.  Ie, ears pricked forward, fur flat, eyes bright when playing
through cage bars, as opposed to bottle-brush tail, screeching, back not
arched, etc.  Anybody else ever had an only ferret behave like this?  Does
it bode well for her future socialization with my other ferrets?
 
Since it's a new place, all of the ferts are thrilled to explore.  Potpie
gets run of everything except the bedroom, while the other three are
confined to the living room when they're out.  If both are out at the same
time, a baby gate separates them.  There's a fireplace in the living room
that still has heaps of ashes (don't worry, it's ferretproofed too) in the
top grate from the last fire.  Guess what the ferrets wanted to do first?
You betcha.  One albino, one black sable, and one chocolate ferret climb
INTO the fireplace.  Some time later, three sneezing grey ferrets climb
back out.
 
Cage hint: for those of you who use wood shelves in their ferrets' cages, go
to the fabric store and buy some canvas and some snaps (either the kind you
'crimp' on by using a tool and a hammer, or the sew kind.  i prefer the
crimp kind, since you get to make lots of noise and bang on stuff).  Lay the
shelves down, size the fabric to wrap around the shelves lengthwise with
about 2" of overlap, then install the snaps and hem the fabric.  Voila,
removeable shelf covers that provide traction, are washable, and easy to
remove - you don't even have to remove the shelf from the cage!  You can get
fancy, but a snugly fitting sleeve usually works just fine.
 
Seamstress Melissa and the 4 ashbunnies
 
 ___ Melissa Litwicki __ [log in to unmask] ___
 By the whole newsgroup devoted tennis showing
     it after scarfing fork and laughters
[Posted in FML issue 2025]