Hi everyone!
 
We are so glad weI finally found people who are as crazy about ferrets as we
are:), besides this is a very friendly list and we enjoy reading the mail
every day.  We have one male siams (light brown) and he is now 6 months old.
He is a real sweety.  We got him when he was only 9 weeks old and he was
very wild then.  Now he has calmed down a little and although he still does
his little ferret dances, he also enjoys laying on his back on my chest and
having his tummy patted.  Besides sleeping and cuddeling, his favorite hobby
is going for walks on his leash.  We live in Germany (I am Austrian, my wife
is Icelandic) and very often people stop and tell us how cruel we are and
that an animal like that should be set free into the woods.  It is hard to
explain to them, that setting him free would mean his certain death.
Besides if you look at Emil you can see that he is a happy healthy ferret
who is very curious not frightened of anything or anyone and who doesn't
ever bite.....which brings me to the second reason I wrote this letter.
 
Well, Emil bit as well in the when he was just as old as your ferret is now.
He came up to us and started licking our hand or feet and suddenly he would
bite VERY hard.  We were close to, what you have started doing: just walking
with shoes until we called somebody knowladgeable (probably spelled wrong)
about ferrets and she told us that he would never ever stop biting by
himself, but that we had to teach him, since this is a way for them to make
contact (they call it a "contact-making-bite" in German) She said that she
had a 95% success rate with a very weird way of disciplining: She adviced us
to bite back.  Yes, that's right, to bite back.  Since the situation was
very bad (we were afraid of walking barefoot or even in our socks in our
appartment) we only saw the possibilty of having to give him away or to take
her advice.  , Emil bit my wife twice and each time my wife bit him back
into the toe and she locked him into his cage for 10 minutes (usually he has
36 square meters to play) after that he stopped biting her.  It took almost
2 weeks until he stopped biting me.  I also bit him back, but in the head.
Now, it sounds really cruel, and it was really not enjoyable, but it worked.
I don't know why it took him longer to stop biting me, then my wife.  It is
just important to always let your ferret know, (of course some time after
you punish him) that you love him and that you don't want to harm him.  If
he has a favorite (Emil loves his vitamine-paste) give it to him from your
finger.  As we wrote in the beginning, he is now the most sweet little
critter and has never bitten anyone since that.
 
>He is about 10 weeks old (born on 10/05), so know he is still in kitdom,
>but he has got to learn now, not when he is older.
 
This is exactly our opinion too
 
>.... you all speak of how "cuddly" your ferrets are...was this after this
>"kit" stage or when you purchased them were they like this?
 
Emil grew into beeing a snuggler.  Even now he will not come up to us just
to cuddle, but he enjoys it very much when we pick him up from his favorite
sleeping place in the kitchen and scratch him behind his ears.
 
>My vet who is very ferret friendly has suggested putting a little bit of
>lavender oil on him, as it is calming, also some on his bedding and
>toys...anyone ever try this?  My vet uses Reiki healing......
 
Now, I have no vet who uses Reiki, but my mother is a Reiki master and she
has also studied aroma therapy in Scotland (I didn't know it was possible to
study that!!) .  We (my wife and I) don't really believe in it, but I called
my mother and here is what she told me:
 
- When buying oil, be careful to buy oil which is made for therapy and
  massaging and NOT "good smell" oil
- The oil must be natural and must have been extracted by water and not by
  carbon, since carbon extracted oils may (not nessecerally will) cause an
  allergy.
- When using therapy oils always thin them out with oil you could use for
  making food (sorry, don't know the english expression) EXEPT of Lavender
  oil, this you can use un-thinned.
- You can mix Lavender oil and Geranium oil which has also a calming effect.
  Use 5 drops of Geranium oil and 10 ml of "normal" oil.
 
Well, this is my mothers advice and if it doesn't help, at least it doesn't
harm.  Besides, beeing wild is a ferret thing to be.
 
We also observed that if we hadn't taken Emil for a walk for 2 days he was
much wilder although he has a lot of space at home it is incredibly exciting
for the little furballs to go for a walk and believe me, after a one hour
walk he will be exhausted.  So we would advise you to train him to walk on a
leash.  I won't write about that now, since this letter is already long
enough, but if you want us to share our "leash-training-experience" with you
just write to the list or you are also welcome to E-mail us directly.
 
Well, I didn't mean this letter to be so long, good luck to you Chrystal
and let us know how you and Bozlo get along!
 
GUDNY (the wife) HERWIG (the husband) and E M I L (the sweetest ferret in
Germany:))
PS: if anyone knows of any http pages in Germany which concern ferrets it
would be very nice to let  us know since we rarely hear from other
ferretmums and -dads
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[Posted in FML issue 2158]