I quote several different people in here, all without references. My
apologies. I'm tired.
First off: our first blockage. We had a ferret who kind of randomly
stopped eating, was syringe fed for two days, then spoon fed for two more,
then began eating solid food again, and is now quickly gaining back the
weight she had lost. She got a clean health check today and our vet
believes it was a partial blockage. I'm sighing in relief; we love this
shelter kid, and would have been heartbroken if we'd lost her--which we
thought we had. She's a bit older and we thought it was a delayed stress
reaction, or possibly the change in the food formula--she's eaten Iams all
her life and we thought she might be suspicious. We put down everything
we could think of for her to eat. Now she's back to normal, which means I
have to refill her food dish every two hours and she's gained a quarter
pound in three days. :-)
>There was a warning in Ann Landers today about leaving heating pads on
>overnight, that they can ignite. Guess it is o.k. if you only have it on
>when you can be there, but do they really need that added source of heat?
>The design of your ferret house did sound interesting.
A note to those who want to offer their fuzzies a safer source of warmth
than a heating pad: I remember seeing a product in pet stores a while back
that was a thick pad that you were supposed to microwave. It stays warm
for a loooong time--overnight, basically--before it needs to be zapped
again. Seemed like a good idea to me. I think you can do something
similar with rice? Or am I remembering that wrong? Anyway, the pads I saw
were intended for kittens or puppies and they remained in the "safe" heat
range for about eight hours. Anyone ever used one?
>I tell people that ferrets are like any other animal: If you "teach" them
>to bite, intentionally or not, they will. If you are always careful of
>them and give them no reason to mistrust you, they don't.
>
>I just wondered how others deal with this question, because I know you
>all do.
The ferrets that travel with me never, ever bite. That's intentional on
my part. I don't bring ferrets out into the community to interact with
strangers unless they're pretty shock-proof (the ferrets!), and I have a
couple of "ambassadors" that don't even think of biting, even when I've
accidentally kicked them in the tail or stomped on toes or whatever. But
when people ask this, I tell them that if ferrets are raised with love and
affection, they don't bite. If the people are still interested, I try to
explain the difference between nipping--which can hurt--and biting. One
is play, the other aggression. One is caused by a ferret thinking of its
mouth the way we think of our hands; the other has a variety of causes,
including abuse, neglect, pain, fear, dominance. Both are semi-instinctive
behaviors that have learned and reinforced components. There is a strong
genetic component to each, and I believe that they are genetically
separate, though both part of overall temperament. In other words, they
are related to two very different instincts that happen to involve a
similar action. A human analogy would be reaching out and grabbing
something interesting vs. reaching out and grabbing someone in order to
hurt them. Different motivations, same type of action, generally very
different effects.
Not every interested stranger gets this lecture! I just tell them that
baby ferrets are nippy and explore with their mouths, like baby dogs, cats,
and humans, and that with a proper upbringing they outgrow it--also like
dogs and cats and humans. (I don't usually mention that some are better
learners than others, and that some will always get a little too
excited--but that's also a lot like dogs, cats, and humans.)
>Should Republicans prevent sales of Kenndy campaign buttons? Vegetarians
>prevent sales of meat grinders? Bad idea.
Heh heh. Without my meat grinder, how would I make that chicken slop that
makes my ferrets so happy?
Jen and the Crazy Business
[Posted in FML issue 3019]
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