Regarding Severe biters Lilith and Greta,

Joann,

I am dealing with a similar situation and have been posting my
experiences on http://Ferretopia.proboards51.com
Search for Roman or Josiesmom.

Basically I've adopted a huge Champagne male ferret bred by Path Valley
Farms. He'd been shipped to a distributor, then sold to a family with
a couple kids. Accompanying him was Path Valley's pamphlet instructing
the new ferret owners to thump, snap or ping the ferret's nose, and
holler at him if he bites. This ferret's first introduction to human
hands, was shall we say quite rude?

I've got conflicting information as to exactly how old he is, the
distributor said 5 months, but photo details show him to be at least
several months older. I'm putting him at least 9 to 10 months old.
Ferret kits need to learn how much pressure is and is not acceptable
when playing with humans, usually this is a bit of trial and error.
The human doing the introduction should be one self controlled enough
to NEVER get mad, show fear or pull away if too much pressure is used.

What can start out as a normal playful love bite that would be
acceptable to another ferret, when given to a human, if that human
pulls back reflexively the ferret's natural reaction is to grab harder!
Roman's "normal" play bites are considerably harder just from the fact
that he is a huge ferret!

I am offering Roman free roam 24/7, natural foods so he learns where it
is appropriate to apply massive amounts of jaw pressure, I talk with
him constantly, and touch him as he travels by. Several times a day I
swaddle him in a cloth or T-shirt and pick him up this way, sometimes
just setting him back down immediately, other times holding him
briefly, eventually holding him longer and longer.,

He watches me interact with the other ferrets and loves to play tag
with me. I use stuffed animals as hand surrogates to play with my hands
this lets him bite and rough house close to my hands, but not WITH them
(not yet anyway).

I've had to alternate using gloves and swaddling and bare handed
touching, stroking, picking up. He's latched on a couple good times
already and just two days ago bit clean through a vein over my knuckle,
causing some internal bleeding into the knuckle!

I am VERY consistent in my "coaching" - if he bites he gets scruffed
and dragged, then held until he settles down and ONLY when he has
completely relaxed in my hold, do I then let him down. I have to wear
sweats, socks and a long sleeve shirt because we WILL go after exposed
skin sometimes. Usually when he gets wound up during playtime. But in
the first few days of being allowed free roam he DID attack me while I
slept on the sofa! He pierced my eyebrow! NOT the best way to get woken
up, I can assure you! But still I did the scruff and drag and a brief
time out in a small cage: after I cleaned myself up I got him back out
and held him briefly and transferred him to a larger cage with proper
ferret goodies inside. He was NOT allowed free roam for two days.

Something else I've done is put him in a harness. This makes him get
used to being " touched" even when I cannot be there. I have ferret
proofed my house and made doubly sure that the harness cannot get hung
up on anything. The harness also makes him actually seek my attentions
for rubs and scrubs. After a few days in the harness, I take it off
him and allow him complete freedom. If he bites me again, the harness
goes back on and things start all over.

I offer him treats from my hands, ferretone to lick, hairball remedy ti
lick, butter to lick, corn beef hash to eat and sometimes small pieces
of bologne. No, I don't make the processed meats a normal part of
ferret diets- he just has shown that he really likes them, so I am
using EVERY thing at my disposal to prove to him that hands ARE nice
and when hands get bitten they remain neutral in his maw, the worst
that happens is he gets scruffed and drug like a momma ferret would do.

He is totally o.k. with being held and picked up while wearing gloves -
just bare hands set him off. So I'm pretty certain that its been the
bare handed "nose pings" the breeder instructed that has instilled in
him the need to defend himself. He WANTS to be socially interactive
because he plays tag with me, will tug of war with ropey toys, will
climb up on my lap, follows me around the house and flat ferrets
consistently at my feet or even across them. The severe bites are
getting fewer and farther between, and at least a couple times he laid
his teeth on me and of his OWN accord chosen NOT to apply any pressure!

Recently he started dozing off while being held, a milestone for sure
in my book, but this last time, he went into a very deep sleep and then
started crying in his sleep, awoke with a start and latched on good to
my knuckle! Although bleeding profusely and definitely sore, I still
did NOT put him down; scruffed him dragged him then cradled in my arm
again and stroked him calmly; only then letting him down. After being
bitten and while continuing the settling cradle I'd spritzed my hands
liberally with Fooey. This helped deter him from further bites, and he
DID try - but it also has left a bad taste in my mouth since then too!
Apparently that yucky stuff soaks through your skin and gets into your
blood stream! BLECH! Now my other ferrets that kiss me all the time,
won't kiss me!

Using these methods I've successfully rehabbed a couple other biting
ferrets and one who was labeled vicious and passed from home to home
because of it. Now she is my biggest lap puppy! Its NOT easy remaining
neutral when being chomped, but steel yourself for it. It would be best
if only ONE person works with the ferrets until they get over their
bad habits, this way the coaching is consistent. Patience, patience,
patience, persistence, quiet persistence, persistence, repitition,
repitition, repitition and repeat again. Keep in mind that ferrets LIKE
reactions - watch them interact and the fastest way one of them will
get the other to leave them alone is by going limp, and tuning the
other one out. Humans need to adopt this method too when dealing with
bites. If we don't react the ferret loses interest in the behavior and
learns to modify his behavior to get GOOD reactions from the human!

Cheers,
Kim

[Posted in FML 6012]