Hi all.  We're fairly new to these little fuzzies, and I have a question
about an odd noise one of ours makes.
 
We just bought a second as-yet-unnamed ferret to play with our first,
Digger.  While Digger did just wonderfully alone, I think he was a bit
disappointed that our cats wanted nothing to do with him.
 
Well, we broke almost every rule in the book for introducing a new ferret.
We let the new guy explore his new cage, then put Digger in the cage with
him (watching them carefully).  It actually went very well, and Digger,
who will NOT sleep in an exposed place, curled right up beside the new guy
on top of a towel.  I guess you could say we got lucky.
 
My question is about a funny noise Digger sometimes makes around the new
guy.  It's not exactly a hiss, but more of an asthmatic, Darth Vader-ish
breath.  What exactly is this?  Is this how some of them hiss, or is he
just telling the new guy to settle down?  It doesn't seem to be an
agression noise, but it might be a "back off" noise.
 
Can some of you veteran keepers tell me how to interpret this?  I'm just
curious.
 
Thanks!
 
roger
[Posted in FML issue 3635]