Females I find to be the hardest to introduce, I have a female who had
been on her own for 2 years and I was with another ferret due to someone
thinking a baby ferret would make a great pet for a 5 year old.  Anyway
I had no money for a second cage at the time, so my girl and the baby
had to share for the first few nights I allowed my girl be free range to
sleep in my room while the baby had the cage.  After a few nights she had
to go back into her cage she and the baby fought over bed and space not
to mention the cage was to small it wasn't long before I ended up with a
third ferret he two had been on his own for 2 years but he came with a
cage, however the family couldn't handle him because he was deaf... he
and the baby got along perfect, infact he wouldn't let the baby go unless
her groomed him first, I left the cages side by side and showered my
first girl with a ton of attention so she didn't feel put out, when i
entered their room I talked to and petted her first, soon I got a hand
made cage; 6 foot by 3 foot cage with tunnels on the out side and lots of
stuff to do.  Play time was better the hissing fighting stop so I put
them all in the cage, although no one was allowed to touch my girls first
bed and she firmly reprimanded those who did she was fine, though it's
been year and should I shower more attention on the boys first she gets
indignant and angry.
 
I did try and introduce another female but that didn't work, the
screaming and hissing was bad, My first girl would let up no blood or
anything but my first girl just would not let up I eventually had to give
the baby girl away, My Girl just wasn't tolerating another female in her
domain.  since that other female insidnt my first girl seems even happier
about her male room mates.
 
here are the technics I tried, to sum things up, I had to do up to 6 with
my girl and the boys before she accepted them.
 
1 putting the cages side by side,
 
2 switching their bedding after 3 days sleep so they could smell each
other more and forced to sleep in the others cent for the finally 2
before the bedding wash
 
3 paying a ton of attention to the established ferret first
 
4 very supervised playtime if one looks about to attack the other I'd
pick up one before the attack commenced
 
5 take the both for walks out side on separate harness and leashes
allowing them to get near to each other pulling the apart when they
fought (Out side is great neutral terra)
 
6 I even tried putting them in the same cage with a divider in the
middle so they could see and smell each other but not get at eachother
(that worked for the two boys and my first girl, but not the girls)
 
7 I even tried letting them fight to establish dominance but the more
the fought the more aggressive the fight would become and every carefully
I had to take them apart
 
8 I then began to give them the same amount of attention when I picked
up one girl I picked up the other and would switch them up periodically
just so they could smell each other on me
 
in the end nothing I tried worked and I couldn't keep the new girl
because I could even let her play with the other ferrets or I'd have
to lock my first girl in and maybe go back to the drawing board her my
first girl and the males sad as it was.
[Posted in FML issue 4445]