I recently adopted a 1 year old little girl who was turned in at the
emergency room, of all places. The staff called me because I have had
a lot of experience at that facility. Who could turn down a playful
little beauty who needed a new home?

I have two other ferrets, probably coming up on three years of age,
who were adopted from a rescue where they intermingled freely with
other ferrets. They did not take kindly to Luci-fur (aptly named) and
attacked her quite viciously, sometimes double teaming her. There was
no blood but lots of poop and screaming. I divided their room and put
small screens at floor level so that they could at least see each
other. I have used all of the techniques I know (changing bedding,
group ferretone, controlled sniffing, very supervised free roam,
rewards when there is no attack, new toys that distract, time out,
you name it) At first, Luci acted as if she had never seen another
ferret, which might be true.

Fast forward to the present: After 4 months of controlled co-mingling,
Luci is now the aggressor. The others, Tabi and Gremlin, simply avoid
her. There are no fights, but Tabi and Gremlin aren't getting their
ferret wrestling time, one of their main forms of exercise. I forgot to
mention earlier that Luci is deaf. She doesn't hear their little 'get
away' chirps when they try to ward her off. She simply persists to bug
them but not attack. She goes nose to nose or nose to tail and just
persists in being a pest.

So here is the present picture. The girls are let out of their divided
room for playtime in a divided house. They are separated until everyone
has their first burst of jumping, dooking enthusiasm. They Luci goes on
the prowl and I follow. And here is a big contradition - the three of
them can lick ferretone or slurp their soupies with their little noses
only millimeters apart. Go figure.

Is this just a waiting game? Does anyone have any other ideas?

[Posted in FML 7599]